ingénu/e 39, spring 2023

ingénu/e creative talent revealed

Art Trails & Open Studios

enjoy the art, meet the artists

plus festivals reviews & interviews galleries & exhibitions concerts, gigs, theatre & film book reviews, poetry & flash fiction creative courses & workshops & workshops

south downs and high weald : issue 39: spring 2023

https://wtam.uk/

https://wtam.uk

ingénu/e creative talent revealed

contents spotlight on... art trails & open 4 visual arts & contemporary crafts 18 performing arts 36 festivals 52 poetry, prose & illustration 66 creative courses & workshops & 73 workshops 80 coda who’s who & what’s what editor Gill Kaye editor.ingenue@gmail.com

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Roger Kaye roger.ingenue@gmail.com 07583 944546

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cover image

On 10th August The Loggia in the stunning Italian Garden at The Festival Theatre at Hever Castle is the setting for New Creations Collective's brand-new ballet based on the life and works of Florence Nightingale.

You know the legend, but how much do you really know about the lady behind the lamp?

Visit www.newcreationscollective.com. For more info about Hever Festival Theatre see p.57, and visit www.heverfestival.co.uk/index.php/performances/

"if it's not in ingénu/e ...it's not happening!"

prelude Hello dear readers, and welcome to Spring!

You find me, this morning, somewhat disgruntled, even a tad cross – well actually hopping mad. I've just discovered that the gorgeous gem that is Green Tree Gallery has had notice to quit their premises by their landlord, Borde Hill, (who want to turn the building into office space for their staff. Seriously? They couldn't just find somewhere else on their 2,300 acre estate?) Since its launch fifteen years ago Green Tree Gallery has been a wonderful little oasis of creativity in the heart of mid Sussex, providing a much needed outlet for many of the talented artists and makers across the region and extending a warm and welcoming reception to browsers and buyers alike. Jill and Sam who run the gallery will close their doors for the final time on 15th April, following which they will take some time to ponder any possible future for their gallery. In the meantime we extend a heartfelt thank you for all their hard work and wish them the best of all things in whatever direction they take.

This is the final blow to what was once the perfect destination; a leisurely browse around the gallery – perhaps buying a gift for someone special (several pairs of my favourite earrings have been Valentine's gifts from Green Tree Gallery) or treating oneself to that painting or sculpture that you just can't leave without), followed by a delicious lunch at Jeremy's or a tasty cuppa and cake at Elvira's – both of which also sadly had to close. So much for Borde Hill's vision of "helping local communities feel mentally and physically replenished". It is just another of the thousand unnatural shocks that art is heir to...

And talking of unnatural shocks, what is it with councils' hate for trees? Do they actually want more flooding, higher temperatures in city centres, not to mention the quiet decline in wildlife and insidious sabotage of the UK's climate goals? Following the shock of Sheffield and Plymouth councils' war against treekind, East Grinstead council has taken upon itself to cut down all the trees along a busy road. What was once a leafy, shady highway buffering the traffic noise and fumes is now a graveyard of stumps. I despair.

Councils and landlords – have they no vision at all?

Ok, rant over. Time for a little levity. Social media is a mixed blessing. While it is a vital lifeline for promotion and exposure I can inadvertently lose hours scrolling… Every once in a while however, something pops up to make my day. Here is a tweet which did just that. 'Overheard through the door: "It's a bookshop, what do you want to go in there for? What is wrong with you today?!" I look out indignantly and see a woman talking to her dog...' Thankyou @ravenbooks for sharing that snippet of hilarity.

For more to brighten your day check out the following pages, full of wonderful art at open houses, art trails and exhibitions and a plethora of festivals and performances, to cram your diary withal; fascinating interviews, creative writing, the list goes on... enjoy! –Gill Kaye, editor

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spotlight on...

art trails & open studios

South East Open Studios 2023 2nd to 18th June

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outh East Open Studios (SEOS) returns this summer from Friday 2nd to Sunday 18th June. This inspiring annual 17-day event celebrates creative talent across Kent and East Sussex, raising the profile of visual arts across the whole of the South East.

This year, SEOS continues to bring artists and makers together with their local communities, helping to develop valuable connections between artists and art lovers. The event not only helps to build artists’ profiles in the wider arts arena but also puts the South East on the map as a hub of creativity.

You can expect to meet artists and makers in their studios and exhibition spaces, chat with them about their work, see demonstrations and even have the opportunity to take home a treasured piece of artwork, offered for sale during the event.

Painter and colourist Jude Askey Brown is one of the talented artists who showcased their work last year. Jude said “It’s always a pleasure to be part of such a well-established and well organised art event – and I am so excited to be joining the programme again! It’s a great opportunity to be able to showcase your work and get inspired by like-minded artists and creatives.”

SEOS Chair, Philip Johnson, added “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to make this year’s SEOS a memorable event for artists and visitors alike. There’s an inspiring range of work on show throughout the South East and something for everyone, in some amazing settings, produced by some truly talented creatives.”

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ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

spotlight on... art trails & open studios With the support of the public and boundless enthusiasm of artists and makers over the past 25 years, SEOS has grown to be one of the biggest open studios events in the UK. Art lovers are encouraged to take part this summer by visiting studios and supporting an initiative that celebrates the wealth of creativity in the South East.

You can find out more information about the 2023 event on the SEOS website: www.seos-art.org.

c-wise from far left: Tim Harker Ceramics; Victoria Atkinson, Angel Gossip; A Lincoln Taber, Coombe Haven, November; Ashdown Pottery (BG), Jugs; Annie Soudain, Chalk Hill Blues; Camilla West, jewellery maker; Hilary Shields, Rock Pool Bowl (detail); Julie Gurr, Woven Vessels; Jude Askey-Brown, Echinacea

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Steyning Art Trail

27th–29th May and 3rd–4th June

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Steyning Art Trail – left: Diane Jones, Ceramic Sculpture; below: Lisa Woolcott, Autumn Sunset, felt art

ucked away on the edge of the South Downs, the historic town of Steyning hosts an annual art trail not to be missed. A variety of venues are situated within an area small enough to be covered by foot, but with a quantity and quality of artwork which attracts attention from far afield.

Visitors can leave their car in one of the convenient central carparks and enjoy encounters with artwork in local artists’ homes and studios, community halls, a historic church and also a number of boutique shops nestling among the Tudor architecture on the High Street. It’s an Alice in Wonderland journey of creative discovery with many of the venues offering cream teas, demonstrations and of course a friendly welcome.

The local population of artists share a passion for joining forces each year to put on this big event within the small town. They not only embrace all manner of media and style within their cohort, but also invite

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guest artists to join the trail so there is something new to see each year.

This year there will be sixty-four artists exhibiting, including nine new members and thirteen guest artists, in twenty-three venues. Enough to whet the appetite for a day out in Steyning this summer.

From 27th to 29th May and 3rd to 4th June, venues open 11am to 4pm. www.steyningarts.co.uk

Adur Art Trail

back for 2023 3/4th, 10/11th, 17/18th June

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he Adur Art Trail will open again this year for three weekends in June. Some popular old favourites, Houseboat Verda and Shoreham Gallery will be joined by more regular exhibitors plus six new venues offering a huge range of work including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, textiles and much, much more.

Venues will mostly be opening at weekends but some are also open during the week, e.g. Skyway Gallery, Shoreham Gallery and St Mary De Haura group show. Look out for our brochure available from the end of April or visit our website and our Instagram and Facebook posts for regular updates.

Do please check opening hours and days carefully as some venues are not open every weekend.

This year we are very pleased to welcome new venues including The Church of the Good Shepherd, Studio 100 and Shoreham Creatives on the Beach and Town Quay Studio in town as well as Saltmarsh Studio and Art Up Close further afield.

Visit www.adurartcollective.co.uk for further information about the Adur Art Collective artists.

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Hailsham Artists Network

Arts & Crafts on Tour: June & July

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Hailsham Artists Network – left: Barbara Olivier; Nasturtium Bowl; below: Josie Tipler, Untamed

ailsham Artists Network, lovingly known as HAN, began some five or six years ago in a move to shift the work of organising the Hailsham Art Trail off the backs of the Hailsham Festival Committee. A cunning plan which resulted in the formation of a new group of like-minded artists and creative people who are now actively exhibiting and promoting their work around local towns and villages.

Apart from some very talented and well known painters, the network has first class jewellers, potters, glass and textile artists.

Last year, HAN took a fresh start, after the hiatus of lockdown, to spread the word and show how talented their artists are. With support from local charities and businesses, they were able to hold successful events around the area from Alfriston to Eastbourne and places in between.

The first of a series of exhibitions this year will be a Wine and Arts Festival to be held on 17th and 18th June at Henners Vineyard, Herstmonceux. The Spring Show at Rushlake Green will be on 24th and 25th June in the Dunn Village Hall, 10am till 4pm each day. Refreshments will be available. Visit www.hailshamartistsnetwork.co.uk.

Jennifer Bisset

with Hailsham Artsts Network

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ennifer Bisset is a Scottish artist best known for her dramatic oil landscapes. Since moving south to Sussex, she has revelled in the challenge of differing light and very different scenery; from the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond to the glorious South Downs.

Her work has been shown in many Scottish galleries and exhibitions including the prestigious RGI in Glasgow. In the past few years she has exhibited in numerous Sussex galleries, from Lewes to Forest Row and most recently in Gallery North, Hailsham and The Lighthouse Gallery, Eastbourne.

For the past decade, she has involved herself in the local art scene: festivals, open houses, demonstrations and workshops.

As a resident of Hailsham, she is fully committed to the growth and success of the Hailsham Artists Network for which she is a dedicated committee member. and is presently helping to organise and promote their upcoming events.

“I don’t pretend to be an expert in any field of painting but I am always keen to learn and share my knowledge with others. Nowadays, there is so much to harvest from the internet, be it YouTube or TikTok, whatever… We all have the most amazing world of beauty and skills at our fingertips. Of course, it can be overwhelming or downright rubbish so we have to be careful and selective.”

For more about Jennifer and her work you can find her on Facebook and Instagram. pictured at top: Jennifer Bisset, After the Storm

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Vee Pease

at Artists Open Houses: Brighton Open every weekend in May ee lives in West Sussex and works from her studio at home.

Her designs are inspired by natural forms, often found while walking on the South Downs or by the sea. She collects leaves, flowers, seeds, pebbles and shells to draw and paint. From these she designs jewellery in sterling silver with semi-precious stones.

She has also found inspiration during her travels in Pakistan, India, Morocco and Turkey. Making sketches of ceramic tiles, carved wood, textiles and mosaics all contribute to new ideas.

Vee is the daughter and granddaughter of artists and her interest in art began at an early age. She spent much of her childhood drawing, painting and modelling with her sister and mother.

She completed an art foundation course at Newcastle College of Art before gaining a degree in 3D design specialising in jewellery at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham (now UCA Farnham).

She also paints, prints, sews and makes felt, and finds that these different activities constantly inspire new ideas in her work.

Vee is at the ‘Beyond the Level’ trail at Milton House, 72 Clyde Road, Brighton BN1 4NP and the Ditchling trail at The Annexe @ Black Dog Hill, 17-19 High Street, Ditchling BN6 8SY. Visit www.vpjewellery.co.uk for more information.

Yellow Banners, Bunting And Bikes!

It must be

Vee Pease – top: Sterling silver and turquoise earrings; right: Semi precious bead necklace

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Jessops Farm Studios

Art in June!

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elighted once again to be part of the gigantic Open Studios grassroots event that grips the country from coast to coast every summer – our artists will be welcoming you with open doors from 2nd to 18th June this year.

You’ll find our eighteen studios in the area around Sevenoaks easy to spot by the distinctive yellow bikes and bunting adorning the hedgerows. Close enough together to see several in one trip, our 88 artists and crafters are happy to chat, answer questions and offer workshops.

For instance, FREE WORKSHOPS – JESSOPS FARM STUDIOS Jessops Farm Stu3rd Jun Sat AM Capturing Light in Watercolour dios has a variety of Sat PM Painting together – parent and child free workshops every weekend, their gift 4th Jun Sun AM Painting Cats with Mindfulness and Serenity to the community.

Sun PM Pastels en Plein Air Check out the th 10 Jun Sat AM Summer Flowers in Watercolour website for a taste Sat PM Party – all invited – Tea till Three – Wine till Nine of the art on view, 11th Jun Sun AM How to Sketch in Pen and Wash full brochure, venue Sun PM Drawing Sheep in Pen and Wash opening times and 17th Jun Sat AM Muscial Abstracts contact details Sat PM Find Freedom with Multi-Media Painting. www.artinjune.org

All details on website: www.artinjune.org

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Artists Open Houses – Art in the Air: Brighton & Hove Weekends 6th-28th May

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ith a festive mood in the air, this May Artists Open Houses (AOH) offers the chance to see work in nearly 200 artists’ homes and studios. Several artists are also showing work in their gardens, offering a great day out viewing art indoors and out.

Art in Bloom (Hove), features ceramic, paper and bronze sculptures in its walled garden. Stuart and Mark and Friends’ (Fiveways) meadow garden is filled with mosaics. Further afield, South Heighton Pottery (Coastal) shows ceramics in the studio and garden, along with homemade food; whilst Dymocks End Studios (Ditchling) provides a peaceful setting for sculpture and fabric installations beside an orchard and ancient well.

Artists Open Houses welcomes participation from the entire community and includes schools, such as Varndean students’ Ceramics based on Natural Forms and Hove Park school’s Telling Stories; Personal Response. Two venues showcase work by senior residents, Rose Hill Rebels in Hanover and Drawing Together, celebrating work by community members. While in Hannington Lane’s A Room of Our Own, a group of learning disabled and neurodiverse artists invite visitors to take part in a collaborative artwork, developing throughout the festival.

This May, visit the Artists Open Houses around Brighton, Hove and surrounding area, meet the artists, view and buy some great art and crafts. Get inspired!

The AOH Festival runs weekends: 6th to 28th May. For more information visit www.aoh.org.uk.

Lines of Enquiry, Shades of Meaning part of Artists Open Houses

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n exhibition of drawings and hand-made sketch books by Angela Edwards, Tim Gwyther, Karin Hay-White and Gaynor Williams. These drawings can be an end in themselves but often they are made as a step on the way to creating a final work – a practice that was once described as “the most marvelous elaborate, complex way of making up your mind”.

The artists work with pencils, charcoal and chalk pastels, all of which are highly responsive to their ‘touch’ – the movement and pressure of the hand.

Simple tools and unimpeded techniques provide them with the most direct means of visualising an idea.

Above all their work reveals the link between looking, thinking and doing. To complement the exhibition, bookbinder Gaynor Williams, whose practice is based on the concept that a book can be made out of practically anything, will be showing her recent collection of hand-crafted sketchbooks.

During the exhibition each artist will lead a free drawing activity in the gallery based on their own practice: Saturday 13 May 2-4pm, Two-minute Scribble with Tim Gwyther | Saturday 20 May 2-4pm, Playful Lines with Karin Hay-White | Saturday 27 May 2-4pm, Experiment with Charcoal with Angela Edwards.

Lines of Enquiry, Shades of Meaning is part of Brighton’s Artists Open Houses and runs from 3rd to 28th May at the Grange Gallery, The Green, Rottingdean BN2 7HA. Open Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 1pm-4pm. Tel: 01273 301004.

Angela’s studio @Town Quay Studios, Shoreham by Sea will also be open Wed to Sun 11am to 5pm for the whole Open Houses trail in May.

top: Tim Gwyther, Triptych after Monet; left: Daisy Jordan, Olive Baboons on Rooftops

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Karin Moorhouse

Preparing for the Tarrant Street Tulip Themed Trail, Arundel April to early May

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here is a Tulip Festival held between April and early May at Arundel Castle and Gardens, the festival is regarded as one of the top tulip displays in Europe. For the first time in history, the castle’s iconic steep bank has been planted with more than 10,000 Oxford red tulips, while the labyrinth has been planted with over 14,000 King’s Blood tulips to create a stunning feature, in celebration of King Charles III’s Coronation in May. Sparked by the owners of Juniper Café and Parker's Atelier concept store, a few of the Tarrant Street traders have come together to promote the independent businesses of the street. The idea is to have a 'Tulip Themed Trail' through Tarrant Street as a way of doing something a little bit extra at the time of the tulip festival when Arundel welcomes a lot of visitors.

And so local artists such as Karin Moorhouse, Andy Waite et al are getting busy painting tulips to display in windows – amongst them the old Spark’s Yard store on Tarrant Street – to add to the aesthetic quality of the street and give visitors an extra reason to walk Arundel’s famous thoroughfare.

Visit www.karinmoorhouseart.com to find out more about Karin’s work and to discover her wonderful art classes. Visit www.juniperarundel.co.uk and www.parkersatelier.co.uk, also www.andywaite.net for more info about the key players in this event.

Chichester Open Studios

22nd/23rd, 29/30th April & 1st May

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hichester Open Studios, formally known as Chichester Art Trail, has been a part of Chichester's yearly art events calendar since its origins in 2001 as 'Open Doors' with just a handful of artists taking part. This year we have an incredible 156 local artists within 125 studios ready to open their private creative spaces to the public.

Visitors will be welcomed to the 2023 Open Studio event over two consecutive weekends starting on 22nd and 23rd April, then 29th and 30th April, and ending on Bank Holiday Monday 1st May – open from 10.30am to 5pm.

above: Karin Moorhouse, Section of tulip painting, work in progress.

Chichester Open Studios – top: Peter Barton, glass artist, Studio 70; right: Frankie Brown, printmaker, Studio 44

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spotlight on... art trails & open studios The Artists that take part in the Chichester Open Studios are a real mixture of full or part-time professionals alongside talented artists new to the scene, with an eclectic mix of mediums including painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, metal work and woodwork.

Visit www.chichesteropenstudios.org for full details and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @chichesteropenstudios.

Susie Olford, Venue 35, Hoe Lane, Flansham, PO22 8NJ; 22/23, 29/30 April and B/H 1st May, 10.30-17.00.

All details at www.chichesteropenstudios.co.uk. I can be contacted at smoart@btinternet.com.

Susie Olford

at Chichester Open Studios

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he season moves on; I’m pleased I live with South Coast weather, seeing other regions’ weather maps. Spring needs to lighten our views of everything and set us feasting on new year beginnings in Art. My oil paintings continue to be contemporary scenes for you to dream about, usually created with the textured marks of a palette knife. New work is again a mixture of sea and landscapes, joyful and colourful.

My first showing is with the Open Studios Trail covering a large circular area around Chichester. As nearly the most easterly Venue of the Trail, I am easily accessible to art lovers further east. My Venue just off the A259 between Littlehampton and Felpham is simple to find, with free courtyard car parking. I’m in the hamlet of Flansham which most Sussex dwellers seem not to have heard of! Green Arrows show you the Way! It is a beautiful barn, spacious and has wheelchair access. There is space for you to browse and dream at many, many paintings – popular 15cm boards and large 50cm ones too. Humorous wine cards, maybe some new designs, always displayed.

Susie Olford, Sea Greens and Sand

Louise Duggan

at Chichester Open Studios

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his is the first time that Louise is taking part in the Chichester Art Trail, having returned to the UK after working for 23 years overseas. Her last commission before coming home was for the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. Alongside previous work, she will be showing a new collection based around the natural elements and her interpretation of the changing seasons.

“After 23 years living in the desert, I am that person standing in the rain, kicking the autumn leaves, and watching as the countryside comes alive in the spring.

I wanted to take my first year back recording how I saw these changes and the emotions that they evoked within me.”

Louise is an abstract artist, she intuitively layers different mediums to create depth to the visual experience she wants to share, often incorporating resin, gold/silver leaf and spray paints. Her canvas swirls with movement as she skillfully takes you on a journey through spontaneous use of acrylics and various mediums to further expand her visual communication.

Discover more at www.louiseduggan.com.

above: Louise Duggan, The Forest

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Horsham Artists’ Art Trail 2023 10/11 & 17/18 June

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his wonderful annual summer celebration of creativity is again taking place over two weekends in June this year.

As well as several venues in central Horsham, the trail extends beyond the town to include rural areas and lively village locations in the Horsham District such as Storrington and Henfield, which also hosts its annual Gardens and Arts Festival on the first weekend. Look out for our distinctive turquoise signs to help guide you to venues.

Visitors can expect to see a wide range of art and craft on display at artists’ homes and studios, as well as small group exhibitions. These will cover a wide range of artistic media including painting, printmaking and sculpture, through to jewellery, quirky upcycled pieces, leather and textiles.

All venues have free entry and often there are refreshments on offer and beautiful gardens in which to pause awhile as you make your way along the Art Trail. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in a creative atmosphere over two weekends this summer.

An Art Trail brochure with a handy trail map showing the location of all of the venues will be available. This will be distributed across the Horsham district as well as being available as a download from Horsham Artists website: www.horshamartists.org.

To keep up-to-date with our news and brochure publication date, visit our Facebook and Instagram pages, and ‘Like’, ‘Follow’ and ‘Share’ our regular posts.

You can also keep updated on future events by signing up to our occasional newsletter via the website.

Venue opening times are 10am to 5pm.

from top: Horsham Artists – Alison Crowe, Coiled Ribbon Pendant; Jo Willis, Caught by the Wind; Dominic Simpson, Trebarwith Strand

Worthing Artists Open Houses 2023 17/18 & 24/25 June & 1/2 July

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orthing Artists Open Houses is opening up its doors to visitors again this summer. After four years, the summer art trail is up and running, with an amazing forty-two venues showing the work of over 200 artists. Fans of WAOH will recognise many of the artists and be excited to explore the work of a large number of new exhibitors. The range of work continues to inspire and awe; visitors will be beguiled and challenged. There is experimental painting and multimedia alongside traditional textiles and ceramics, jewellery and printmaking, stained glass and upcycled clothing, landscape and photography.

The trail includes studios and galleries, as well as Worthing College and several community projects.

Much of the work on display is for sale, with prices to suit all budgets – a great opportunity to acquire unique, locally created treasure.

The added attractions are the houses and gardens on the trail, each with its individual style and inventive display, inspiring visitors with ideas, and often

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from left: Worthing Artists – Claire Garcka, 71 Rose Walk; Lorraine Heaysman, Wet Cyanotype

visitors from near and far.

Go to www.worthingartistsopenhouses.com for details of venues and opening times. The free trail guide is available from May.

delighting with delicious cakes.

The Worthing Artists Open Houses event provides beauty and interest in a seaside setting, bounded by green hills, and offering a wide variety of venues all within walking or cycling distance. Worthing will be celebrating the return of this enjoyable local event across three summer weekends, 17/18 & 24/25 June and 1/2 July, and is looking forward to welcoming

www.horshamartists.org ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

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Hailsham Artists Network

& s t r A fts

Cra

on tour

Wine and Arts Festival 17th - 18th June

Henner’s Vineyard, Herstmonceux

Spring Show 24th - 25th June

Dunn Hall, Rushlake Green

Summer Exhibition 22nd - 23rd July

The Old Chapel, Alfriston More events on the website HailshamArtistsNetwork.co.uk www.hailshamartistsnetwork.co.uk

Arts and Crafts direct from the makers 14

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156

Artists

125

studios

156 artists from CHiCHEstEr aND sUrroUNDiNG arEas wElComE yoU to CHiCHEstEr opEN stUDios 2023

Sat 22 April & Sun 23 April and Sat 29 & Sun 30 April / Mon 1st May Open 10.30am – 5pm

www.louiseduggan.com

www.chichesterarttrail.org @ChichesterOpenStudios

SOUTH OPEN Join us this summer as we celebrate the creative talent across Kent and East Sussex.

SEOS-ART.ORG

Visit our artists and makers, chat about their work, get inspired!

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.seos-art.org

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V Pease Jewellery See Vee’s jewellery each weekend in May, 11am-5pm, at Brighton Artists’ Open Houses: Milton House, 72 Clyde Road, Brighton BN1 4NP and The Annexe @ Black Dog Hill, 17-19 High Street, Ditchling BN6 8SY

Adur Art Trail 2023

Open houses & venues in Adur & Shoreham Back again for 3 exciting art-filled weekends in June: 3/4th, 10/11th, 17/18th For more details please visit

www.adurartcollective.co.uk https:adurartcollective.co.uk

Instagram: AdurArts; Facebook: Adur-Arts

www.artinjune.org 16

beautiful handcrafted silver jewellery from the heart of Sussex 07885 472366 | peasevm@gmail.com

www.vpjewellery.co.uk

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Artists Open Houses Weekends 6-29 May 2023

Olive Baboons on Rooftops: Daisy Jordan

www.steyningarts.co.uk

Brighton and Hove, along the coast, over the downs to Ditchling and beyond

aoh.org.uk www.aoh.org.uk

@ artistsopenhouses

LINES OF ENQUIRY, SHADES OF MEANING. An exhibition of drawings and hand-made sketch books by Angela Edwards, Tim Gwyther, Karin Hay-White and Gaynor Williams

The Grange Gallery The Green Rottingdean, Brighton BN2 7HA 3 - 28 May 2023

Gallery Opening Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 1pm - 4pm

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visual arts & contemporary crafts

Do come in!

Artspring creatives welcome you to their studios Artists from the Artspring Gallery in Tonbridge will be welcoming visitors into their workspaces for this year’s South East Open Studios and Art In June, which both run from 2nd to 18th June.

The Artspring collective is made up of thirteen talented painters, potters, jewellers, printers and glassworkers and they all love to share their work with visitors and talk about their craft.

Camilla West, for example, is a jeweller who is deeply inspired by the conversations she has with the people who visit her studio. “The thing I love about jewellery,” she says, “is that it is very personal to people. When I make a piece of jewellery and someone buys it because they love it there is a sort of connection between us.”

Hilary Shields also loves to share the glass pieces she makes. “People just love the colours,” she says, “and the way the light shines through it and casts such beautiful coloured shadows. I like the achievement of creating something from nothing – and the fact that people enjoy them, and sometimes like them enough to buy them, is wonderful.”

Each of the creatives at Artspring has their own style, their own medium and their own voice, and they create a myriad of stunning pieces of work. But one thing unites them all – a desire to share their work and to offer a very warm welcome!

The Artspring members are:

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Anne McArdle, Antonia Enthoven, Camilla West, Claire Longley, Colin Anderson, Alf, Gillian Smith, Hilary Shields, Jane Bridger, Katie Whitfield, Marie Pearson, Paul Chave and Sarah Weatherall.

visual arts & contemporary crafts

Esther Newnham Brown new life after winter

Spring and summer for me as an artist is my happy time, everything breathes new life after the winter hibernation.

New ideas and even new subjects will fizzle at my brain until I start to work on them; sketchbooks are filled up with different ideas that I will go back to over time, and may not even venture out to a painting until the following winter. Some may be discarded, but generally they will be left, because what works one day will not work another, so everything remains fluid.

The mind of an artist is governed by so many things in life, and it also affects my style, I float between several different styles and mediums, sometimes with success and my hard work pays off with a sale, which is an encouragement to carry on in that style.

I am a member of Horsham Artists and some of my work is on Artists and Illustrators Portfolio. I am fortunate enough to run, with jeweller Alison Crowe, Gallery BN5 in Henfield, www.gallerybn5.co.uk, where I show most of my work. The gallery is open Mon to Sat 10.00 to 2.00. Do pop in and have a look at my work or email esther@gallerybn5.co.uk for enquiries.

For more info visit: www.artspringgallery.co.uk, www.artinjune.org, www.seos-art.org opp from top: Summer in the garden by Colin Anderson; Gill Smith prepares a background for one of her textile paintings; Enamel earrings by Anne McArdle; Marie Pearson’s pots draw upon natural themes; Camilla West models one of her beautiful necklaces. this page from top: Printmaker Claire Longley says “You meet such interesting people” ; Hilary Shields loves the translucence of glass; A print of Whitstable by Antonia Enthoven comes hot off the press. And Alf (not pictured) looks forward to welcoming visitors to her jewellery workshop.

Esther Newnham Brown – top: And the Dog Went Too; above: Daisy Fields

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Daisy Fields by Esther Newnham Brown

Oils and Acrylic work On display at Gallery BN5 Henfield Contact esther@gallerybn5.co.uk 07725 044897

“A treasure trove of delights”

TRIPADVISOR REVIEW

ArtSpring Gallery is an artist-run cooperative art gallery in Tonbridge, showcasing a collection of high quality fine art, jewellery, glass and ceramic work by local emerging and professional contemporary artists.

www.artspringgallery.co.uk artspringgallery.co.uk

Find us on social media: @artspringallery

167 High Street, Tonbridge TN9 1BX Open Wed – Sat, 11am – 4pm

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the little art gallery

Linda Foskett, Trundle View; inset: enamelled bowls

and coastline. When the weather is not good I have the pleasure of reliving those moments by painting where I would like to be. I hope you will take a trip to our village and see what we have to offer and maybe return home with a memento of an enjoyable day out.

. the little art gallery .....

Art is something to cheer us all in difficult times.

As summer starts this year many artists are looking forward to their art trails and exhibitions.

Hoping to be able to fill peoples lives with art and colour.

Here at the Little Art Gallery in West Wittering it has been very quiet. The gloom and doom in the financial markets and the rest of the world impacts on all small businesses and the people they support.

We are hoping this spring and summer we will see things improve as artists also need sales to survive.

As well as photographers, printmakers and painters we have work by many other artists – jewellers, glass artists, ceramicists, plus sculpture and pewterware, so we are pleased to be able to offer smaller sales items rather than just pictures off the walls. This has certainly been a great help covering some of our costs.

I personally enjoy walks in our beautiful countryside 22

A contemporary gallery space between city and sea showcasing local artists. Gift vouchers available. Check website for opening times.

Also open by appointment.

West Wittering, West Sussex PO20 8LT 01243 512218 www.thelittleartgallery.online

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Intertwinings an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at

The Skyway Gallery, Shoreham, 6th–27th May We are a group of artists and friends drawn together through our love of art and creativity. Our multimedia art includes painting, sculpture, bookmaking, textiles, printing and probably more.

Some of our group live on the Adur houseboats where we meet monthly to eat, drink, philosophise, chat and create a communal masterpiece, mammoth in size, experimental in nature. As often happens on these occasions, ideas germinate and take off...

A sunflower is painted. This leads someone to a study of seeds, someone else looks at spirals and how they recur in nature. Tiny, intricate drawings are made of shells on the beach. Ammonites are inspiration for a sculpture. Plant forms become the subject of a painting and so on.

Our creations inspire one another, leading all of us along different paths, which cross, double back and weave into one another, hence our title 'Intertwinings'.

To misquote Carol King, “Our lives have been a tapestry”. Our friends, our ideas and our creations are all intertwined, making a display of “rich and royal hues” which everyone can enjoy and relate to.

This is our third exhibition together.

Our ever-evolving group has been joined by some new, exciting, well established artists. We are Jessica Aidley, Susanna Chaplin, Sue Edwards, Sylvia Emery, Gillian Hills, Fay Hughes, Delia Lindon Spence, Hala Sabet and Valerie Shepherd.

Intertwinings is at Skyway Gallery, Shoreham Centre, 3 Pond Road, Shoreham by Sea, BN43 5WU from 6th to 27th May, 10.00am to 5.00pm, preview Tuesday 9th May 6.00 to 9.00pm. pictured from top: Sylvia Emery, Moonlit Night; Susanna Chaplin, Dancing with Chickens; Sue Edwards, Red Flowers

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Artgenu/e

by Lesley Samms

What’s the Story? – Artists and gallery owners talking about their unique journey For this issue we speak to Kent artist Louisa Crispin, Artist in Residence at Bannatynes, near Eastbourne, until 14th May. Please could you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Born in Farnborough, Hampshire we moved to Sissinghurst, Kent when I was eight and I now live in nearby Hawkhurst. My days were filled with sport and outdoor living, I rarely sat still.

Did you have an interest in art as a child?

Apparently I drew on the wall all the way up the stairs when I was little but I have no memory of drawing during my growing years. However I was very interested in all types of craft. My mother was a contemporary textile artist, having sewn for most of her life and worked for Digby Morton and Ronald Patterson in her late teens. I attended many shows and workshops with her over the years before training as a silversmith and subsequently learning to draw.

Did you have a formal art education or are you self-taught?

I would be described as 'selftaught' in that I never studied at a university, but I have attended many courses by some talented tutors and artists that have generously shared their knowledge and enabled me to develop my own style.

Was there a moment or a person or a place in your past that influenced you or you feel set you on the journey to where you are now?

Carolyn Worby – a botanical artist who exhibited at Florum in Kent 24

for several years. I fell in love with her intricate skeleton leaf drawings and wondered if I could achieve her level of skill. She gave me a starting point. Since then the influences have been many and varied, from historical work such as John Ruskin and Albrecht Dürer through to more contemporary drawing artists – far too many to list here.

I’m fascinated by the delicacy and beauty in nature, particularly at a micro level. When I draw this detail I become completely absorbed in what I am doing but also find I need to learn more about the subject. Drawing is an aide memoire, it anchors me in a particular moment and makes me really look closely to understand the subject. Artist books from my childhood, such as Charles Tunniclife, Gordon Benningfield and Edith Holden inspire me but I’m also interested in the trend for Green Sketching (Ali Foxon has written a wonderful handbook).

What’s the best thing about being an artist?

I think my answer would be different each day.

Today it’s about being flexible so I can indulge in a trip to Lamberhurst church to see the snowdrops before retreating to my studio to become absorbed in drawing ferns. Another day it was visiting the London Art Fair with like-minded people, discovering new artists, subjects and techniques. The Flightpath Community Project was a highlight. I loved the connections, hearing the stories and seeing the variety of drawings. I was thrilled to win The Big Draw Award for this work.

What has inspired or influenced you?

The thing about maturity is that there are so many influences that you can’t possibly pinpoint them all.

It’s often the smallest thing that can have the most impact, an off the cuff comment at just the right moment such as the person who told me that drawing is about practice. I listen to audiobooks and pod-

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visual arts & contemporary crafts casts while I am drawing, usually related to nature.

I recently completed a sketchbook and included a listening list. Several weeks later I realised I had omitted the one I was listening to at the time of drawing ('Gone' by Michael Blencowe), yet it had a huge influence on my thinking!

Please tell us a little about the process involved in making your art?

I consider myself a 'collector' and I am drawing my way through some of the specimens and adding pieces where appropriate. It resembles a school nature table in my studio.

A recent study is a stag beetle found by my son.

I began by making a series of two-minute sketches, challenging myself to establish the important features, followed by a few more detailed sketches until I felt comfortable with the scale and balance. This is part of a series of Nature Studies for my solo show with Pure Arts Group and I compose an arrangement using the sketches within a set format. Referring back to the specimen, I draw from top left to bottom right across the page, completing each pose before moving onto the next. Covering the blank areas with spare paper or a 'bridge' helps prevent smudging and minimises the oil marks from my hands.

I was keen to explore the Stag beetle in flight which involved the gentle teasing out of the wing cases. A very delicate operation using lots of pins.

The drawing is built up slowly and gently using a variety of pencils and rubbers as mark-making tools, with fixative applied once I am happy with the depth of tone. The pencils are kept pin sharp with fine sandpaper and regular sharpening on my helix. Embossing adds another

level to this series of drawings. I create a template using thin card and hand emboss into the paper surface.

Where are you finding ideas and inspiration for your work currently?

My garden and local walks provide endless inspiration.

It’s a cliche but I now realise how little I have explored this area before the lockdowns. I am fascinated by the changing seasons, appreciating the Nature Diaries from artists such as Janet Marsh and Gordon Benningfield.

I have been exploring Rye Harbour Nature Reserve with the Insect Watch Group and won a bursary from the Society of Wildlife Artists to create a body of work from there over the summer. As part of this I am researching nature journaling, drawing in the field, and working to improve my natural history skills.

What advice would you give to those aspiring to make a living out of art?

Try to work out why you want to be an artist, what motivates you. Then research other artists who you feel may have the same motivation, they may be happy to share with you their tips for making a living. Many artists have a quiet income stream that is not immediately obvious and which enables them to thrive. There are many and varied opportunities in the art world, it’s not just about selling fine art through galleries but if that is your desire find yourself a business mentor like Pure Arts Group.

Visit www.pureartsgroup.co.uk to read interview in full, and www.louisacrispinart.co.uk. from left: Fern ii; Louisa Crispin at Drawing the Natural World, Clayhill Sept 2022; Study of a Butterfly 002 Comma; Study of a Beetle 001 Stag Beetle

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www.sussexartfair.co.uk

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Sussex Art Fair

at Goodwood Racecourse 12th – 14th May

Returning for a third event at the world renowned Goodwood Racecourse in the heart of the picturesque Sussex Downs, ninety exhibitors, each of whom you will be able to meet, will be situated throughout the main hall of The March Stand with thousands of artworks for sale Sussex Art Fair is spread over three days starting on Friday 12th May at The Preview Evening from 6pm to 9pm, when visitors will be the first to view the collections of artists' work along with a glass of bubbly be-fore the event opens at the weekend to the general public.

Prices of art start from as little as £50 for prints and smaller works to over £3,000 for outstanding masterpieces, so there will be something to suit every budget. Buyers' purchases will be packed by our specialist wrapping team artPAKK, an eco friendly alternative to bubble wrap.

We are thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Sussex Wildlife Trust, a conservation charity who cares about protecting the wonderfully rich natural life that is found in our Sussex towns, countryside and coast. Visitors can purchase original artworks kindly donated by our exhibitors, each work priced at £50, with all proceeds going to the charity.

Weekend facilities include a first floor bar and café / restaurant serving tea, coffee and food throughout Saturday and Sunday. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

Being one of the largest art fairs within the Sussex counties, Sussex Art Fair is the perfect place to begin your art collection, or indeed add to your collection if you are already a seasoned art enthusiast. All exhibitor details will be available within both the limited edition brochure available at the event as well as online after the event.

We look forward to welcoming you in May. Sussex Art Fair at Goodwood Racecourse Selhurst Park Road, Chichester PO18 0PS Friday 12th May, 6.00pm to 9.00pm: Preview Evening Saturday 13th May, 10.30am to 5.30pm: Weekend Day Sunday 14th May, 10.30am to 5.30pm: Weekend Day Further details and tickets at www.sussexartfair.co.uk For free entry offer see advert on facing page.

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chalk gallery

The window display at Chalk Gallery in Lewes is renowned for its wondrously respondent displays that always attract the attention of passers-by.

We have members from a wide range of artistic disciplines and the power of our window display is in showcasing that variety and drawing visitors in. This spring is no different: with three diverse talents enjoying the spotlight in our window.

First up during April is Yolande Beer. Her passion for ceramics simply oozes from the work. Her decorated pots, platters and jugs are covered with lively and flowing figures. Dramatic and eye catching, they show off her flair for life-drawing and love of a bright colour palette.

Alan Taylor’s evocative landscape paintings are highlighted in May. His process, immersing himself in the local environment and painting outside, is of vital importance to him. And the results are paintings that capture both the specificity of our Sussex landscape and the feeling of wellbeing that living here amongst this

beauty brings us.

At the end of May is Sally Smith. Sally exemplifies the traditions of still-life painting but with a wholly modern spin.

Charity shop finds, car boot purchases and flowers jostle amongst collected and inherited items. These are all brought to life with collage and paint, a massive dash of colour and an abundance of fun.

As well as the work of these featured artists displayed in the window, there will continue to be the usual wide range of art by all the Chalk artists showing inside the gallery.

Come one, come all and enjoy what Chalk Gallery has to offer this spring. Find us at 4 North Street, Lewes, BN7 2PA. Open Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm. www.chalkgallery.co.uk c-w from top: Alan Taylor, View from the Downs looking northwest towards High Weald; inset:Alan Taylor; Sally Smith, Collections; Yolande Beer, Platter; inset: Yolande Beer

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West End House Gallery Set in the heart of beautiful, historic Smarden, West End House is a contemporary gallery showing original artworks including paintings, prints, ceramics, sculpture, glass and jewellery.

The gallery holds two to three themed exhibitions a year and at all other times has an eclectic mixed display showcasing work by gallery artists and makers. The space is warm and friendly with inspiring work at all prices. Everyone is welcome and the gallery is fully accessible to people with disabilities, including wheelchair users.

It has been run since 2011 by two local artists, Karen Papworth and Patricia Hawkins. Twelve years on and they still share the delight of selling artworks on behalf of their wonderful artists to equally wonderful customers. Most recently the gallery has added an online shop to their website. Being open for four days a week can be limiting, so this will allow customers to browse and shop any time that is convenient to them.

West End House will be one of 110 galleries taking part in The Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead from 10th to 14th May. Please contact the gallery if you would like complimentary tickets.

West End House Gallery, Water Lane, Smarden, Kent TN27 8QB. Open Thursday to Sunday, 10am-5pm e: girls@westendhousegallery.co.uk w: www.westendhousegallery.co.uk f: www.facebook.com/2westendgirls i: www.instagram.com/westendhousegallery

from top: West End House Gallery; Micke Nilsson, Wooden Crows; Annie Waring, Blue Still Life With Five Pots

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West End House

Art Gallery

Contemporary gallery in beautiful Smarden. A glorious mix of artworks at all prices from artists near and far www.westendhousegallery.co.uk www.westendhousegallery.co.uk

Gill Bustamante Artist and Art Tutor www.gillbustamante.com

www.facebook.com/GillBustamanteArtist www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SussexPaintings

Best Art Gallery in Kent Winner

Water Lane, Smarden, TN27 8QB, 01233 770261 email: girls@westendhousegallery.co.uk

www.midhurstgallery.co.uk

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GREENFINCH, Ticehurst ‘For The Artistic Shopper’ Fast becoming a destination shop, Greenfinch is a relaxed, informal gallery/shop showcasing artists and makers from Sussex and Kent.

The space is chock-full with an eclectic mix of locally made pieces spanning a wide price range, with something for everyone.

The artwork, ceramics, sculpture and jewellery change approximately every three months, so there's always something new to see.

Aromatherapy candles, natural perfume, bath and body products, women’s clothing, books, cards, home and gardenware are all also to be found, and you can easily lose an hour in here browsing!

The calm scene is set with chilled background music and one of our aromatherapy candles burning. There’s never any pressure to buy; people do come in to enjoy the ambience, artwork and to just take some time for themselves.

We hold events and talks on a regular basis. Please sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date: www.greenfinchshop.co.uk.

Greenfinch is set in the heart of the beautiful

village of Ticehurst, close to the East Sussex/Kent border and only half an hour from Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Cranbrook and Mayfield. This small village punches well above its weight, with a selection of independent shops and businesses including Ruston House Interiors, Buy The Weigh, The Old Haberdashery, The Art Bunch florist, Greedy Goat café and not forgetting the ever-popular pubs The Bell in Ticehurst and the Bull Inn. It's definitely worth a trip to Ticehurst – we look forward to welcoming you.

FOR THE ARTISTIC SHOPPER

BEAUTIFUL ART & UNIQUE ITEMS FROM SUSSEX & KENT CHURCH STREET TICEHURST TN57AE 01580 201259 jane@greenfinchshop.co.uk greenfinchshop.co.uk @greenfinchticehurst

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original work by 25 local artists and makers The Lighthouse Gallery Eastbourne fabulous coffee, cake and snacks 19 Cornfield Terrace, BN21 4NS unusual plant gifts 07748354879. Open Tues-Sat 10am-4pm https://www.facebook.com/The-Lighthouse-Gallery-109961087991355 Find us on Facebook and Instagram life drawing classes https://www.instagram.com/lighthousegalleryeastbourne/

Barbara Hepworth Art & Life 27 May to 3 September 2023 £6.00 to £12.50 townereastbourne.org.uk www.townereastbourne.org.uk @TownerGallery

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Towner Eastbourne Barbara Hepworth – Art & Life

Running from May to September the show will display some of Hepworth’s most celebrated sculptures including the modern abstract carving that launched her career in the 1920s and 1930s, her iconic strung sculptures of the 1940s and 1950s, and large-scale bronze and carved sculptures from later in her career.

Key loans from national public collections will be shown alongside works from private collections that have not been on public display since the 1970s, and rarely seen drawings, paintings and fabric designs.

The exhibition will open with an introduction to Barbara Hepworth’s work and a look at her childhood in Yorkshire, including some of the artist’s earliest known paintings, carvings and life drawings as she began to explore movement and the human form. It will also explore Hepworth’s passion for dance and how she captured movement with gestural paintings and sculptures.

The exhibition will culminate with Hepworth’s interest in science and technology, from the bold geometric abstract drawings and sculptures made in the 1930s, through to her iconic Hospital Drawings of the 1940s, and her fascination with the Space Race in the 1960s. Hepworth noted at the end of the decade, “Man’s discovery of flight has radically altered the shape of our sculpture, just as it has altered our thinking”. With all these works, Hepworth married her interest in science with a deep spirituality, which will also be explored through the exhibition.

Visit www.townereastbourne.org.uk for full details.

Barbara Hepworth, above: Totem 1960-62; left: Tibia graft 1949

A Tribute to British Artists collective awareness of living in Britain. According to Gill Bustamante - Artist & Art Tutor As a landscape and wildlife artist I have enthused a few times in this lovely magazine about the way that nature inspires me and needs to be looked after!

I am therefore delighted to see that the movement to save what is left of our beautiful landscapes and birds and animals is growing. Rewilding projects, assigning national parks, preserving coastline, protecting animals and birds, etc are all now in the

David Attenborough in his latest BBC series, only 13% of Britain is now woodland. Considering that Britain was once just a massive forest this is tragic. However, there is hope for it and I, and many other artists, will continue to campaign for our landscapes just by creating artwork that illustrates its beauty to others. A heartfelt thank you to the South Downs Artists group (@southdownsartists) and to anyone who is working to keep Britain beautiful and save its natural environments and wildlife. –Gill Bustamante www.gillbustamante.com M: 07815 036576 pictured below: Gill Bustamante, Radiance

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www.hastingscontemporary.org

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Two major exhibitions at

HASTINGS CONTEMPORARY from April

SOUTINE|KOSSOFF (1st April to 24th September) pairs two major figures of 20th-century painting: one a master of the School of Paris, the other a master of the School of London.

Soutine | Kossoff is the first ever museum exhibition to explore the artistic relationship between British artist Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) and Belarusborn painter Chaim Soutine (1893-1943).

Undertaken with the full support of the Kossoff estate, it brings together around forty important loans from public and private collections in the UK, USA and beyond. Aside from Soutine Portraits (Courtauld, 2017) at around twenty works, this is the largest group of Soutines shown together in UK since 1982, and the first since then to show both portraits and landscapes, providing a fascinating follow-up to The Barnes Foundation’s 2021 show Soutine / De Kooning.

The discovery of Soutine’s paintings in the early 1950’s was a significant moment for Kossoff, who was already finding his way towards the kind of direct and expressive use of paint he saw in his predecessor’s work.

The main focus of Soutine | Kossoff is on the areas of interest shared by both artists: landscape and portraiture. The exhibition features seminal landscapes painted by Soutine in southern France in the early 1920s and from Kossoff come major paintings of railway junctions, building sites and other scenes of unexpected beauty found in north and northwest London.

A publication will accompany the exhibition, more info can be found at www.hastingscontemporary.org.

Leon Kossoff, City Building Site, 1961, property of a European collector. Copyright Leon Kossoff Estate

Chaim Soutine, Maternité (or Pieta), 1942. Property of a European collector. Photo by Todd-White Art Photography

WE OUT HERE (1st April to 4th June) is a groundbreaking exhibition showcasing the work of six Black artists of Caribbean heritage based in Hastings. WOH artists will be creating new culturally specific artworks and collaborating to produce a distinctive, large-scale, multi-media show. Working in different mediums, the themes they will explore include migration, Black lives in coastal towns, relationships with the sea, climate justice and racial injustice, fast fashion and the Black presence in crafts.

We Out Here will also be complemented offsite with a series of community-based activities and workshops which aim to encourage art engagement. The project is led by local artist Lorna Hamilton-Brown RCA MBE, known as the ‘Banksy’ of the knitting world for her use of the medium for social commentary. For WOH, Lorna will be creating a new ‘WE MEK’ knitted magazine cover – The Windrush 75 Issue.

Lorna says “We Out Here has given me the chance to bring together Hastings-based Black artists who I admire, from a range of disciplines to create a historic exhibition. We have been hidden in plain sight for too long, but WE OUT HERE!” Visit www.hastingscontemporary.org for further information.

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performing arts

theatres

The Picture House Cinema and Restaurant, Uckfield

Chichester Festival Theatre

A

C

t The Picture House Cinema and Restaurant in Uckfield, National Theatre Live is a major part of our Arts content, along with opera and ballet from The Royal Opera House and opera from The Metropolitan Opera in New York.

We want to provide the real theatre experience without the cost and time of travelling to London. Our Theatre Meal Deal is great value, visitors can enjoy a two course meal (starter and main) and a National Theatre show for just £38.00 for shows screening in the evening.

Here's taste of what's in store this spring: Good (15) C.P. Taylor’s timely tale, which was filmed live at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London, starring David Tennant, screening 20th, 23rd April and 11th May; Life of Pi (PG) puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, screening Sunday 30th April; Best of Enemies (15) David Harewood (Homeland) and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) play feuding political rivals in James Graham’s multiple awardwinning new drama, 18th & 21st May. Visit www.picturehouseuckfield.com for more information about what's on.

above: NTL 2023 Life of Pi, Hiran Abeysekera.

Photo by Johan Persson

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Festival 2023

hichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2023 – the final season programmed by outgoing Artistic Director Daniel Evans – includes four world premieres and three musicals.

The three musicals are: The Sound Of Music, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved classic; Assassins, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book

by John Weidman; and Rock Follies, a new musical

by Chloë Moss with lyrics by Howard Schuman and music by Andy Mackay.

The three new plays are: Never Have I Ever by Deborah Frances-White; The Inquiry by Harry Davies, directed by Joanna Bowman; and a new adaptation of The Jungle Book by Sonali Bhattacharyya for Chichester Festival Youth Theatre.

And there are also some great modern and classic dramas such as Lia Williams and Joshua James in Noël Coward’s The Vortex; Eileen Atkins and Sebastian Croft in Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles; and Mom, How did you meet the Beatles? by Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P. Kennedy, directed by Diyan Zora, in a UK premiere.

Not to mention Rory Bremner in James Graham’s Quiz prior to a UK tour; Arthur Miller’s A view from The Bridge directed by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart and Chichester Festival Youth Theatre promenade Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream through West Dean Gardens.

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performing arts Daniel Evans and CFT’s Executive Director Kathy Bourne said, “This year, we have an outstanding range of plays and musicals, including a handful of world premieres and renowned plays which have never been performed at CFT before. For example, we’ve never staged a play by the great Arthur Miller; nor have we staged Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most-loved musical. There is a rare outing of a play

by US writer Adrienne Kennedy and, fifty years after his death, a new production of Noël Coward’s first big success. Contemporary, 20th century or classical, every piece has something to say about the world around us today.

“A company of exceptional actors are already lining up to join us including Dame Eileen Atkins, Samuel Barnett, Carly Bawden, Gina Beck, Rory Bremner, Sebastian Croft, Carly Mercedes Dyer, Joshua James, Danny Mac, Alexandra Roach, Zizi Strallen, Lia Williams, Greg Wise and Susan Wokoma; and seven directors are making their Chichester debuts.”

Daniel Evans added “On a personal note, this is the seventh and last season I’ve programmed at Chichester. I’d like to thank the many thousands of freelance artists, creatives and technical staff who’ve brought them to life; CFT’s indefatigable staff; and of course our audiences, who are among the most supportive and adventurous theatregoers in the country. I know they will welcome my successor, Justin Audibert, with the same warmth that greeted my and Kathy’s own arrivals in this beautiful and unique theatre.”

Visit www.cft.org.uk for full details of the season.

Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles

John Cooper Clarke photo, Wolfgang Webster

A sample of what’s on offer this spring at

Worthing Theatres

O

n 8th June Dr John Cooper Clarke, Britain’s bestloved performance poet returns to Worthing Assembly Hall. Dr Clarke shot to prominence in the 1970s as the ‘people's poet’ and became one of the most prolific artists of the Punk years. Since then, his career has spanned cultures, audiences, art forms, and continents.

Today he performs as a stand-up solo poet and will do just that with his new collection – I Wanna Be Yours.

JCC goes into fascinating detail about his early life in Manchester, leading to punk superstardom, drug addiction, and the title of major poet he enjoys today.

On 10th July Peter James returns to Worthing, with the world premiere stage adaption of Wish You Were Dead at the Connaught Theatre.

Following on from five hit stage shows and the new acclaimed ITV series, Grace, the work of best-selling author Peter James returns with the world premiere stage adaption of Wish You Were Dead. An all-star cast includes George Rainsford, Clive Mantle and the award-winning actress Katie McGlynn.

When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and Cleo Morey take their first holiday together, they hope for a few days away from their dark worlds of murder and the mortuary. But their dream escape turns out to be the holiday from hell.

On 24th July BRIT Award winning and Grammy nominated artist KT Tunstall is arriving at the Pavilion Theatre. KT Tunstall burst onto the music scene with her 2004 multi-platinum debut, Eye to the Telescope, which spawned the global hits Black Horse and the Cherry Tree and Suddenly I See.

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performing arts In the last few years, the Grammy-nominated Scottish musician has expanded on her musical selves by focusing on a trilogy of records. Each album zeroes in on a single concept: soul, body and mind. The first, 2016’s KIN, was the soul record; 2018’s WAX was the body record, and the new NUT is the mind record.

Visit www.wtm.uk/whatson/ to discover all that the Theatres and Museum have to offer.

nominated title song Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

This will be TWODS most lavish production to date and audiences will be treated to the spectacle of the famous car flying live on stage!

Performances at 1pm and 6pm during half term make this show accessible to young families. Tickets priced from £19 are selling fast so early booking is strongly advised. For more information or to book tickets visit www.twods.org.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells 31st May to 3rd June

T

unbridge Wells Operatic & Dramatic Society is delighted to bring you a musical extravaganza this half term, with everyone’s favourite flying car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Eccentric inventor, Caractacus Potts and his enchanting children Jeremy and Jemima, join confectionery heiress Truly Scrumptious and batty Grandpa Potts to outwit the dastardly Baron Bomburst and the evil Child Catcher in this non-stop adventure for all ages.

Based upon the book by James Bond creator Ian Fleming and adapted for the stage by Jeremy Sams, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang boasts sensational sets, stunning special effects and features all the Sherman & Sherman singalong favourites, including Truly Scrumptious, Toot Sweets, Hushabye Mountain and the Oscar

TWODS cast present Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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Sarah Smout

Ropetackle Arts Centre Shoreham-by-Sea

Some of the exceptional talent this spring

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opetackle continues to bring the most talented international singer/songwriters to Sussex, these three talented women being wonderful examples.

On 27th April the remarkable Sarah Smout arrives after embarking on a month-long odyssey to Iceland, travelling by boat via Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes. Sarah is a cellist, singer, and activist who creates music and poetry that is deeply-rooted in nature and place. For over a decade, she has toured and recorded internationally with the likes of Michael Chapman, Bridget St John, The Mediaeval Baebes and many more.

Her adventures have inspired an entrancing and solo show called Eyjar (Old Norse for islands) which explores our connections to place, the different lenses through which we view the land and what that means for our relationship with nature.

Sarah’s performances are imbued with visceral story-telling, bristling with atmosphere created with live-looped cello, haunting melodies and deeply felt lyrics that are never too far from the sea.

On 14th June Karine Polwart is performing. A multi award-winning Scottish songwriter, folk singer, and storyteller, her songs evoke a richness of place, hidden histories, scientific curiosity and folklore.

Trees and rocks speak. Birds flit in and out of vision.

And the stars know everything. She conjures the beauty and magic, the sorrow and complexity of the world out of the corner of her eye, with lyricism and tenderness. This is a rare chance to enjoy Karine in

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performing arts an intimate, conversational solo performance.

And last but by no means least on 11th July we can experience the Ashley Campbell Trio. The youngest of Glen Campbell's eight children, Ashley was perhaps always destined to perform. Taking the stage first as a comedian, her debut single was ‘Remembering’. A new version of the track is included on her ‘Something Lovely’ album and the song also featured on the soundtrack to the ‘Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me’ documentary, the compilation won a Grammy and was nominated for an Oscar. Ashley is also appearing at the Southdowns Music Festival in September.

Ashley has also supported artists such as Kris Kristofferson and Jimmy Webb, while both her albums ‘The Lonely One’ and ‘Something Lovely’ hit the Top Ten of the UK Country Chart upon release.

Visit www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk to discover more.

and mischief (as well as sorrow and the supernatural) and are sure to be all that TIMT audiences have come to love about our shows!

Tickets and venue information can be found on our website www.thisismytheatre.com.

This Is My Theatre

returns to captivate us again this spring

F

ollowing our previous touring productions including The Secret Garden and Treasure Island, we are delighted to be back this spring with two more brand new adaptations. From May to June we will be touring across the country with both The Wind in the Willows and Wuthering Heights. Local Sussex shows for the spring season are taking place at Upper Beeding, Hurstpierpoint and the Hawth in Crawley, as well as slightly further afield at Albury and Reigate, with further dates are still to be announced.

We are really excited to be continuing our summer tradition of magical theatre in historic places and atmospheric spaces. Always firm favourites with company members and audiences alike, these productions will remain faithful to the original texts whilst each show is individually tailored to the beautiful venues we are due to visit. Audiences can expect magical telling of revitalised classics as we bring to life well-known characters for the stage.

Suitable for audiences of all ages and with live music throughout arranged by the company’s resident composer Simon Stallard, our adaptations of these much-loved stories will be packed with merriment

The Wind in the Willows ('poop poop')

Amy Dowden

The Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Eastbourne

Three examples of what’s on offer this spring

E

astbourne Operatic & Dramatic Society’s spring musical will be 'Kipps' (The new Half a Sixpence Musical) at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre from 26th to 29th April 2023. This exciting 2016 reworking of the original stage musical Half a Sixpence that catapulted Charlie Stemp to musical theatre stardom, Kipps has been updated for today’s audience without losing the charm of the original musical starring Tommy Steele. The plot revolves around Arthur Kipps, an orphan and overworked draper’s assistant, who unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society.

The charity dance show returns on 11th May for another year and this time stars Strictly pro dancer Amy Dowden, with profits going to St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

Amy’s dancing journey started when, aged eight, she entered a campsite competition – she hasn’t looked back since. She was the 2017 British National Champion and remains one of the highest ranking ballroom and Latin professional dancers in the UK. Amy is also a four-time British National finalist and in 2015 she reached the semi-final of the World Championship.

Amy will be supported by some of her students from her Art in Motion Dance Academy in the West Midlands, and others from Shining Stars Dance Academy,

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performing arts East Sussex Dance and Ratton School Irish Dancers.

Two days later on 13th May, cinema’s most magical music will be performed by the London Film Music Chamber Orchestra under the light of a giant moon!

The show includes music from Star Wars, Interstellar, E.T., Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Gladiator, Inception, Sayuri's Theme From Memoirs of a Geisha, The Dark Knight, Batman V Superman, Man of Steel and Pirates of the Caribbean!

Visit www.royalhippodrome.com for full programme.

Rainbow Shakespeare, The Tempest

London Film Music Orchestra

Rainbow Shakespeare

at Highdown Gardens this summer

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ainbow Shakespeare “The jewel in Worthing’s crown” returns for their 22nd open-air season at Highdown Gardens, one of Sussex’s most magical, beautiful historic gardens and best kept secrets.

Picnic under the stars with the wonderful people of Worthing and its surrounds, and become part of what has become one of the great Sussex traditions. Eleven sparkling professional actors alongside some community performers, including local children, will bring the plays alive in memorable productions of lively, spontaneous and accessible Shakespeare that all ages can understand and enjoy.

Directing both shows is the company’s founder, Artistic Director Nicolas Young, who loves sharing his love of the Bard with Worthing audiences.

The first play of the season is The Tempest, from Tuesday 11th to Sunday 16th July. This play has everything – a dramatic shipwreck, a magician plotting revenge, whilst his daughter falls in love with the son of his enemy, two drunken fools and a monster

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wanting to take over the island. Great poetry and knockabout comedy all make this, one of Shakespeare’s last plays, ideal for all the family in our beautiful open-air setting!

The second play of the season is The Comedy of Errors, from Tuesday 18th to Sunday 23rd July.

Shakespeare’s funniest, knockabout comedy features two pairs of identical twins separated at birth, living in two different countries. That’s just the start of nonstop, madcap adventures when one twin comes across the wife of the other, who claims he is her husband! Jealousy and confusion ensue in trumps. Meantime the other set of twins who are servants, mistake their masters… Everyone thinks everyone else has gone mad. Children will love this show as much as adults.

Tickets can be purchased in advance through Worthing Theatres box office on 01903 206206 or via their website www.wtm.uk. Tickets also available on the gate 90 minutes before each performance.

Visit www.rainbowshakespeare.co.uk for more info.

REVIEW – Henry V

Worthing Connaught Theatre

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powerful, complex and very modern take on Shakespeare's masterpiece, this riveting, stark, challenging performance of Henry V, brought to Worthing's excellent Connaught Theatre by The Globe on Tour and Headlong Theatre, thrilled and perplexed with new and deeper insights into Shakespeare's probings on kingship.

A fast paced edginess throughout matched Oliver Johnson's compelling young Henry as he rises from tormented, uncertain Prince craving his father's approval, to ruthless power-wielding king.

His inner psychological anguish as he grapples with what it means to be a prince, a king, to wield power, holds echoes of Hamlet's tortured dilemmas and the Fortinbras archetype.

He performs 'Once more into the breach...' alone, in an almost foetal position, as if trying desperately

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performing arts Toby Purser, Head of Conducting at the RCM. The orchestra for main productions is St Paul’s Sinfonia, and for smaller scale productions the NSO Chamber Orchestra. 2018 saw a highly praised production of Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Travelling Companion.

“One of NSO’s most visionary revivals” – Opera. It was nominated in the Rediscovered Work category of the International Opera Awards. The performance at Saffron Hall was recorded live (released on the SOMM label) – a world première recording. In June, following a dazzling production of Offenbach’s Belle Lurette: “We were engaged and dazzled, seduced and amused.”

– Planet Hugill. Visit www.newsussexopera.org

Oliver Johnstone in Henry V. photo Johan Persson

to give himself, rather than his troops, the resolve and determination to fight. His threats of rape and pillage of the citizens of Harfleur, and his brazenly cruel demands for Catherine as his wife at the end of the play are implacable, sinister. This Henry can be a monster as well as a merciful, needy friend.

There is nothing comfy about this performance.

These dilemmas, played out by a terrific cast in closeup, are not nicely resolved, but lived out in all their angst as the protagonists make their choices and the machinations of power grind on.

The performers were sharp, strong, volatile, brilliantly directed, some taking multiple roles mercurial in their fluidity, characters throughout announcing acts and scenes that gave the whole production a sense of heady speed and intensity. The clever, minimal backdrop, stark lighting and modern dress left no hiding places. –Liz Longhurst.

Neil Jenkins as King Ouf and Paul Curievici as Hérisson de Porc Epic in Chabrier's L'Etoile – NSO

New Sussex Opera Chorus presents

NSO C Orche c. Nich d . Cat

FAUST

by Charles Gounod - fully staged - new English version

New Sussex Opera

CHIC

Asse Satur

FAUST by Charles Gounod

EAST

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Birley Sund

SO presents a new English version of Gounod’s hellraising opera Faust. Always a popular favourite, it has not been frequently performed in recent years. This intimately-staged productionNew willSussex take Opera you Chorus presents NSO Chorus, Chamber on a whirlwind journey of desire, debauchery, and Orchestra & Soloists damnation – with ravishing music for good measure! c. Nicholas Houghton, d . Cate Couch NSO is a community based company, founded

by Charles Gounod - fully staged - new English version in Lewes in 1978. After many major productions in CHICHESTER the Brighton Festival, it now concentrates on fully Assembly Room New Sussex Opera Chorus presents Saturday 3 June 7pm NSO Chorus, Chamber staged touring productions, specialising in lesser Orchestra & Soloists known works. UK premières have included works by EASTBOURNE c. Nicholas Houghton, NSO Chorus, Chamber Orchestra & Soloists Birley Centre Tchaikovsky, von Einem, Weill, Offenbach and d . Nicholas Cate CouchHoughton, d. Cate Sunday 4 June 4pm c.

Couch Puccini. Performances are in Sussex inversion

by Charles Gounod - fully stagedand - newalso English LEWES CHICHESTER Kent, London (in venues such as Bloomsbury TheaAll Saints Centre Assembly Room tre, Britten Theatre, Cadogan Hall) and sometimes Saturday 10 June 7pm Saturday 3 June 7pm Sunday 11 June 3pm further afield e.g. Snape Maltings, Saffron Hall and EASTBOURNE the Vanbrugh Theatre at Stowe.

HOVE Birley Centre The Old Market Directors have included Sir Nicholas Hytner Sunday 4 June 4pm Sunday 18 June 4pm and Keith Warner. The current Music Director is LEWES

LEW

All Sa Satur Sund

FAUST

FAUST

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The O Sund

www.newsussexopera.org

All Saints Centre Saturday 10 June 7pm

ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39 Sunday 11 June 3pm New Sussex Opera.indd 1

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performing arts LIVE MUSIC IN HORSHAM

2023

presented by Horsham Music Circle for the 81st Season

SATURDAY 13th MAY St Mary’s Church 7.30pm JESS GILLAM ENSEMBLE Music Circle 81st Anniversary Concert

Saxophonist Jess with her group of brilliant musicians promises an explosive concert to inspire audiences to reflect, dance and smile! for TICKETS Phone: ` 01403 252602 email: horshammusiccircle@gmail.com www.wegottickets.com/HorshamMusicCircle A date for your diaries!

THURSDAY 28th SEPTEMBER

82nd Season of HMC concerts opens with

SHEKU KANNEH-MASON cello & PLINIO FERNANDES guitar Tickets on sale from 18th July watch press for details Concert in association with Loiyangalani Trust & St Mary’s

www.twods.org

www.horsham-music-circle.org.uk

TWODS CCBB Ingenue Ad H108xW73mm +3mm bleed.psd.indd 1

06/03/2023 12:27

www.royalhippodrome.com 42

ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

performing arts TIMT Theatre Company presents two all time classics this Spring

Rainbow Shakespeare 2023

www.rainbowshakespeare.co.uk

Magical Highdown Gardens set the scene for two sparkling productions

The Tempest

Magic & Monsters, Lovers & Liars, Comedy & Revenge

Tuesday 11th - Sunday 16th July, evenings at 7.30 pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm

&

The Comedy Of Errors 2 pairs of twins parted at birth: confused lovers & glorious chaos!

Tuesday 18th - Sunday 23rd July, evenings at 7.30 pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm

Book Tickets From Worthing Theatres

https://wtam.uk/ 01903 206206 or wtm.uk OR AT THE GATE

Available from 90 mins before the performance

For more info, dates & venues go to www.thisismytheatre.com

LOVE FILM. LOVE FOOD. LOVE CULTURE. LOVE FILM. LOVE FOOD. LOVE CULTURE. This is my Theatre-2.indd 1

26/03/2023 16:50

EAT SAFELY EAT SAFELY

NT Live: Life of Pi (12A)

DRINK SAFELY NT Live: Good (15) DRINK SAFELY Make sure you choose our Theatre Meal Deal, Two Course Meal* and a show just £38.00

WATCH SAFELY WATCH SAFELY NT Live: Best of Enemies (15) FILM | ARTS ON SCREEN | FOOD | EVENTS | PRIVATE HIRE FILM ARTSI www.picturehouseuckfield.com ON SCREEN | FOOD | Street, EVENTS PRIVATE HIRE 01825 | 764909 I High Uckfield,|East Sussex, TN22 1AS *Starter and main, available for evening performances

01825 764909 I www.picturehouseuckfield.com I High Street, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 1AS ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

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performing arts

GLYNDE PLACE CONCERT SERIES 2023

SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS

BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTS with

JOHAN NICOLA DALENE EIMER piano violin

R. BALLARD P. ATTAINGNANT M. BOARD • J.S. BACH T. ADES • M. DE FALLA F. POULENC H. BIRTHWHISTLE

L. VAN BEETHOVEN M. RAVEL C. SINDING C. SCHUMANN F. WAXMAN

SEAN SHIBE

DALLAHAN Fri 5 May, 8pm

guitar & lute

TOM BORROW

THE GARY FLETCHER BAND Wed 17 May, 8pm

C. FRANCK H. DUTILLEUX F. CHOPIN R. SCHUMANN

piano

22 April- Johan Dalene & Nicola Eimer 20 May - Sean Shibe 24 June - Tom Borrow PLACE

www.glyndeplace.co.uk

CONCERTS START 7PM Tickets, info and other events - glyndeplace.co.uk

Conducted by

naomi butCher

THE CURTOM ORCHESTRA plays Curtis Mayfield Fri 2 June, 8pm

Outdoor Overture Aaron Copland

Rhapsody in Blue

ROBIN INCE Weapons of Empathy Tues 6 June, 7.30pm

Gershwin

Soloist: Soloist: Jong-Gyung Jong-Gyung Park Park

Symphony No 1 in E Minor Florence Price

tiCketS

available from

httpS:// Tonphil.org.uk

box offiCe: 07778034396

£17 adult £16 Senior £8 Student u18 free

Little High Street, Shoreham by Sea, BN43 5EG

SATURDAY 20 MAY 2023 7.30pm Chapel of St auguStine Tonbridge SChool

www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk Box Office: 01273 464440 Registered charity no: 1109381

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performing arts Sensational Young Musicians at

These talented musicians, at the beginning of their international careers, are among just six chosen from the most promising contenders from across the world, who are then given the opportunity for two years to play with top orchestras at prestigious Glynde Place welcomes three outvenues across the UK, as well as recitals and radio broadcasts. standing young musicians who will give On 22nd April the prize-winning Swedish violinist Johan recitals at this year’s Concert Series.

Dalene will play works by Beethoven, Ravel, Sinding, Clara Schumann and Waxman. A remarkable musician and instrumentalist, at just twenty-two years old he has already made an impact at home in Sweden and abroad, playing recitals and concerts with leading orchestras across Europe, America and the UK. On 20th May, the outstanding guitarist and lutenist, Sean Shibe, makes a return visit to Glynde. Born in 1992 and the youngest student ever to enter the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he has won numerous major awards and given concerts and recitals internationally. He will perform works on both lute and guitar including Ballard, J.S. Bach, de Falla, Poulenc and Ades.

The last concert, on 24th June, will feature the twenty-two year old Israeli pianist, Tom Borrow, whose truly incredible performances have already highlighted him as one of this generation’s great pianists. He has won every national piano competition in Israel and in July, 2022, made his debut at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He will play works by Franck, Dutilleaux, Chopin and R. Schumann.

Ticket holders will be welcome to picnic in the beautiful grounds prior to the performances. Visit www.glyndeplace.co.uk for more details. Seating is limited, so early booking is advised.

GLYNDE PLACE

Johan Dalene, photo Mats Bäcker

TONBRIDGE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY Across the Atlantic and back in time Saturday 20th May

May’s concert at the Chapel of St Augustine, Tonbridge School, takes Tonbridge Philharmonic Society across the Atlantic once more, and back to the first half of the 20th century.

It opens with Aaron Copland’s Outdoor Overture, whose only connection with the great wilderness is that it was described as having an ‘open air’ feel, but which has the all excitement that we can expect from this composer.

We know all will love Jong-Gyung Park’s performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Jong-Gyung was kind enough to record it for TPS during the lockdown period, but in May we will have the much greater pleasure of hearing it played live – and you can imagine how wonderful that will be!

The prize-winning Symphony No 1 written by the first Black American composer came as a surprise to everyone at the time – and may be a surprise for you too. Like Aaron Copland, Florence Price was steeped in the music of the people around her, and you will hear the influence of African-American music mixed r with that of European composers like Dvoˇák.

An evening like this, conjuring up all sorts of images of the land across the ‘Pond’, is one that you really shouldn’t miss.

Our summer concert will take place on 1st July at Unity Hall Southborough. The theme for this concert, in a new venue for the Society, will be Treading the Boards: theatre choral music through the ages.

Visit www.tonphil.org.uk for full information.

TPS Music Director Naomi Butcher

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performing arts

A snapshot of

MELTING VINYL gigs this spring & summer

Ruby Wood of Submotion Orchestra

Submotion Orchestra

3rd May at St. George's Church Kemptown, Brighton.

Since their inception in 2009, the genre-defying Submotion Orchestra have moved seamlessly between deep electronica, jazz, soul, and ambient downtempo, mesmerising audiences around the world. Their unique music is at once delicate and heavy, spacious and dense, and highly atmospheric but firmly rooted. Earth-shaking bass and drums combine with lush keyboard and trumpet textures to create the perfect backdrop for the fragile beauty of Ruby Wood’s vocals and bass-heavy productions.

Memorials

20th May at the Prince Albert in Brighton Memorials is the new band of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms. As an exciting experimental duo these multi-instrumentalists cover plenty of ground on stage, juggling instruments in a setup resembling that of a 5-piece band. Their sound touches on many points, veering from melodic songwriting to psychedelic noise, free jazz freakouts, tape loops, and drones, and then back again, using their musicianship to explore the endless realms of sound, noise, and freedom in song structures.

The Luxembourg Signal, Jetstream Pony and Even as we Speak

6th August at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton.

With the release of their self-titled debut album on Shelflife Records in 2014, The Luxembourg Signal quickly attracted a loyal following among fans of dream pop/indie pop music and received enthusiastic reviews for their pop sensibilities, angelic vocals, and lush soundscapes.

Jetstream Pony are based in Brighton and Croydon. Named after a retired racing greyhound, the band features Beth Arzy on vocals, Shaun Charman on guitar, Kerry Boettcher on bass, and Hannes Mueller on drums. With the balance between indie-pop and something darker, Beth's wonderful voice and twelve string guitar are underpinned by heavy bass and sometimes by a two drummer rhythm section.

Australia's Even As We Speak are an exploding supernova of contradictions, lighting up the indie pop night sky, whilst raining down destructive particles and distorting space and time with their chaotic and remote brilliance.

Visit www.meltingvinyl.co.uk for all gig info.

Even as we Speak

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PSYCHEDELIC HEARTS CLUB Psychedelic Hearts Club are inspired by The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album, Cream and other 70’s blues rock bands, the blues of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, and early soul and R&B hits.

They were formed in Brighton in 2015 and after several personnel changes (and a previous fateful Guardian Soulmates internet date in Winchester!) evolved into a duo playing venues and festivals in UK, France & Spain.

Singer and guitarist Simon Tittley started playing at the age of eleven. After a chaotic childhood travelling all over the world he began playing in bands from the age of twelve. After attending drama school in the early seventies he studied with BBC session guitarist Alan Shuttleworth and worked as an actor and guitar player.

In the mid-eighties he worked as a songwriter and producer for WEA International in Bangkok, Thailand. He produced three critically acclaimed albums with Thai artists that received extensive national radio airplay.

Simon was signed to an indie label based near Philadelphia during the early nineties and played

all over the East Coast of the USA. Since then he has worked as a producer developing aspiring artists and as a musician in theatre. He has taught guitar, bass and music production professionally since 1994.

Susie Wellings plays keyboards, flute and sings. She was born at London's infamous modernist Dolphin Square landmark. She studied piano and flute as a child. Her father, producer and entrepreneur Bill Wellings, founded the 60’s Hot Hits label.

Susie remembers attending sessions with her dad where top UK session musicians Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page and Elton John played on cover versions of American and international pop hits. The band currently appear as a duo using bass and drum tracks recorded at their Planet Zog studio.

Visit www.psychedelicheartsclub.com for more information about the band and their music.

Simon Tittley & Susie Wellings

MELTING VINYL LIVE COMING UP IN2023

Unthank:Smith Max Cooper Live 3D AV FOLKESTONE 12.04 Codex Serafini 18.04 Death + Vanilla 19.04 James Holden FOLKESTONE 26.04 Panda Bear &Sonic Boom 27.04 Karl Blau & Country Gravel 03.05 Submotion Orchestra Unplugged featuring the Prism String Ensemble 20.05 MEMORIALS 6.08 The Luxembourg Signal Jetstream Pony Even As We Speak 15.08 Mega Bog 18.09 Erland Cooper 26.10 GLOK 22.11 BC Camplight www.meltingvinyl.co.uk meltingvinyl.co.uk 05.04 06.04

www.psychedelicheartsclub.com

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Paul Paul Gunn Gunn

The Ludwig Suite The Ludwig Suite ‘Shades of Rick Wakeman and Lloyd Webber’s Variations…. love the voice!’

‘Shades of Rick Wakeman and Lloyd Webber’s Variations…. love the voice!’

‘A soul-healing Cello solo it’s pinnacle moment’ Prog Magazine ‘A soul-healing Cello solo it’s pinnacle moment’ Prog Magazine

Lark Reviews Hastings Lark Reviews Hastings

To listen, or download visit To listen, or download visit

www.paulgunn.bandcamp.com paulgunn.bandcamp.com

paulgunn.bandcamp.com click on ‘Buy Digital click on ‘Buy Digital Album - name your price’ Album - name your price’

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All contributions are All contributions are welcome and help to welcome and help to sustain new music. sustain new music.

performing arts

Paul Gunn

musician and composer Based in Tunbridge Wells, Paul writes music for his five piece band. His personal taste in music includes Latin rhythms, the baroque, the modern era and popular culture of the 60s and 70s. His band is made up of musicians from the four corners of the Commonwealth and Europe. ingénu/e recently quizzed him about his music.

Hi Paul. So, tell us little about yourself and your music.

Music connects people. It has been the most important thing in my life, it offers solace and euphoria. Also beauty and exhilaration in an increasingly ugly world. I am self-taught which means I am probably composing from an unconventional perspective.

On first hearing your music I was reminded of Frank Zappa and other talented 60s bands. It’s extremely difficult to put a label to the sound. You do seem to have many diverse musical influences. Tell us about those and also what are your earliest memories musically?

Thank you for comparing me to Frank Zappa! I have also been compared to Bowie, Rick Wakeman and the Andrew Lloyd-Webber Variations album, so quite a mix. I have always liked the popular culture of the 60s, there seems to have been a freshness and innocence which has been lost.

My earliest musical memory was the Aristocats film. Only now do I realise how significant that cartoon film was for me as a child; the Paris Jazz scene with the cool cats playing riotously in the old house. I suppose I unconsciously wanted to be that.

In my 20s I went to study at the Theatre Studio of Gaulier-Pagneux and lived in Montmartre, Rue Lepic where Edith Piaf lived, so I fulfilled my unconscious wish. It was the best of times!

You have assembled a talented set of musicians. Have you gelled quickly or has it been a gradual ‘coming together’ as it were?

I have a five piece band with cello soloist, improvised saxophone, Guyanese drumming and six-string contra-bass with me on piano-vocal. I have been very lucky to play with such amazing musicians: Helen Thomas of LPO on cello, Josephine Davies, UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards Instrumentalist of the Year on sax, David Rohoman (formerly with Ian Dury) on drums and top bass player Leslee Booth. We don’t have much time or resources to practise so it has to happen fast.

Is all your music and lyrics self composed? Or are there pieces created as collaborations?

I write the piano, cello and vocal parts. The sax, drums and bass are left to the musicians' interpretation. Sean Jefferson, who does our visual art, helped me with the lyrics to 'The Dandy Dogs', a story from pre-Christian mythology.

Tell us about ‘The Ludwig Suite’ album.

It has four tracks. 'The Dandy Dogs' has particularly lush vocal harmonies and a gritty cello solo. People would lie in bed at night hearing migrating geese calling and thought they were the Devil’s hunting dogs out to get them. 'Rattle My Cage’ is my response to being locked down; a creative cry for freedom! It features an amazing sax solo by Josephine Davies. ‘Gaby of the Green Eyes’ celebrates the memory of Gaby Lhéry, the lover of Claude Debussy. ‘Ludwig's Nice Bottle of Red’ marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was partial to a snifter. Anastasia Stahlmann guests on violin.

What are your plans and projects for 2023 and onwards?

I am currently negotiating some festival gigs, it would be nice to find an audience for this unusual music. We will go out as Paul Gunn Collective. The Ludwig Suite makes up the first half of an album I would like to finish this year and release on vinyl.

You are invited to purchase it for any price from £0 upwards, it’s up to you. You can find it at www.paulgunn.bandcamp.com.

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ingénu/e chats with

Eddi Reader

ahead of her Bexhill gig in October Celebrating over forty years as a live performer, Eddi Reader has effortlessly developed into one of popular music’s most thrilling and affecting performers.

What sets Eddi apart is the depth and quality of the emotional performance and ability to not only move the listener, but connect her experience to that of her audience. No two performances are ever the same.

Though first brought into the limelight as front woman for Fairground Attraction, whose #1 single, Perfect and parent album, First of a Million Kisses, both topped the British charts, it was Eddi’s subsequent solo albums that signalled her ability to assimilate different musical styles and make them very much her own. Notably, The Songs of Robert Burns (2003) is a timeless interpretation showcasing the poems of Scotland’s national bard and gained her an MBE for outstanding contributions to the Arts.

Her rare blend of meltingly true vocals and towering romanticism combine with an astute and pragmatic nature to make her a unique and powerful figure in contemporary British music – with ten critically acclaimed solo albums, three BRIT awards, a #1 single and an MBE. Well, the first question has got to be how did it feel to receive the MBE? The same as it felt getting any pat on the back for my work. It doesn’t change me but I appreciate being appreciated by anyone from the poor to the rich. All are equal in my experience.

What was it like being in the film ‘Me And Orson Wells’? Did you get much chance to hang out with Zac Effron or Clare Danes?

It was a long day in makeup and once the scene was done those two disappeared. But I did go to an after party and the Orson Welles character and others were there. We partied and extolled the art of Orson most of the night. It was very crowded so I’m not sure if Clare or Zac were there.

Forty years as a musician; you must have some incredible memories. What stands out, what would you consider the main highlights of your career?

Coming home to Scotland having conquered the U.K. music biz. The party in my father’s house was tremendous.

You are playing at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on 4th October*. What can we expect that evening? Any surprises?

I don’t have a set list, I like to get as surprised with what might want to be sung and played.

Finally, could you give us an insight into what projects you have coming up, both musically and educationally?

I’m heading off on a sold out tour in Ireland for two weeks, performing all summer in a West End play, at the same time I’m doing a PhD on secret revolutionary history of Scotland & U.K.... hopefully being inspired to create a new batch of recordings.

In between all that I’ll be enjoying the blissful moments I get to be alive still. *Visit www.coastalevents.co.uk and www.dlwp.com for more details about the gig.

You've received honorary doctorates from four Scottish universities. That’s a lot of recognition.

Yeah when all is fading I can always say I came I saw I loved and played my role as best I could. Great to have a bit of paper to show the gt. grandkids and say “See?!? Granny knows something about something!”

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festivals As we gear up for festival season here is a sprinkling of the wide variety of festivals we can look forward to across the region and beyond. Get your diaries ready...

The Petworth Festival The Year of Two Summers

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s far as the Petworth Festival is concerned, summer normally begins around the middle of July. For over forty years, Petworth and the surrounding area have been able to look forward to a fortnight of intense and high-quality music making just as we head in to high summer. But this year, summer doesn’t just come early – it comes twice. Following up the terrific success that was last year’s ‘Jubilation!’ over the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, this year sees the all-new June Edition, from 2nd to 4th June, an early summer special with three top level events that will give a taste of the great things to come just a few weeks further down the line when the main summer festival arrives.

Midhurst Rother College, the setting for several of the festival’s most popular events in recent years, will be the venue for three cracking shows featuring performers who haven’t just made waves in Petworth but also much, much further abroad.

Ben Waters will need little introduction if you were at his sensational night in the Petworth House Stables during the 2022 Festival. Ben, the musicians’ musician and friend and collaborator of the stars (the Rolling Stones, Ray Davies, Jeff Beck and so many more) will insist you bring your dancing shoes.

And then Gyles Brandreth. He is unquestionably one of our ‘national treasures’ as well as one of the most entertaining performers on the circuit. With on-stage energy to die for, this is both laugh-a-minute stuff, as well as a genuine insight from someone who knew both the Queen and Prince Phillip well.

The third part of the weekend’s stellar line-up sees the return of the remarkable and prize-winning French pianist Bernard d’Ascoli. The winner, aged 19, of the prestigious Barcelona International Piano Competition, the astounding

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pianist who has been blind from birth performs a programme of music by Ravel, Liszt and Chopin.

Then there is the main summer festival from 11th to 29th July. This is a glorious, star-studded event with a smorgasbord of fabulous events. There is music of all genres: classical, mediæval chant, madrigals, jazz/funk, folk roots, rock and world music.

Not to mention poetry, art, comedy, guided walks, theatre and talks. And it all comes to an electrifying and eclectic finale with the Jess Gillam ensemble.

Visit www.petworthfestival.org.uk for full details of all the events across the summer.

Petworth Festival – top: Laura van der Heijden will perform at the July festival, photo Petrina Hughes; inset: Gyles Brandreth

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Brighton Early Music Festival

Exciting plans for 2023 under the theme of New Horizons

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righton Early Music Festival is planning a busy year of events in 2023, all featuring music of the past presented in a way that’s relevant to 2023 audiences. Whilst many ‘standard’ classical events focus heavily on music from the 18th and 19th centuries written to be performed in a concert hall, early music covers 1,000 years of music and encompasses music written for convents, churches, pubs or to be played at home, as well as concert works.

The 2023 programme under the theme of New Horizons includes a summer mini-Festival with workshops, performances and a ceilidh; and a major autumn Festival featuring the best early music performers from around the UK and Europe. Highlights include Secret Byrd, a new immersive performance

by The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Byrd; Fieri Consort and Musica Secreta performing music by female composers of the past; a programme of medieval enigmas from Italian ensemble La Fonte Musica; and the BREMF Players and Singers presenting a baroque programme for choir, orchestra and soloists.

Diary dates: Friday 30th June & Saturday 1st July – BREMF in the Park.

Late September/early October – pre-festival events including workshops and family concerts and Thursday 12th to Sunday 28th October – BREMF Autumn Festival 2023.

See www.bremf.org.uk for full details.

Brighton Early Music Festival – above: Fieri Consort below left: The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork

Broadstairs Folk Week Folk Music by the Sea 11th to 18th August

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roadstairs will welcome hundreds of musicians and dancers and thousands of visitors to the town at the height of the summer season. With its own festival campsite in the town, it’s possible to have a full-on festival experience within reach of sandy beaches.

In 2023, the headliners represent the best of Folk, Americana and Roots music. Seth Lakeman is one of the most successful English musicians of his generation. Lady Maisery is “the most exquisite vocal harmony work on the English folk scene”, according to The Guardian. Home Service features John Tams. The Festival’s Patron Tim Edey invites fellow musicians to join him in a special concert, celebrating all things guitar.

The main concert venue is the town’s Baptist Centre where you can also catch Granny’s Attic, The Jeremiahs, The Often Herd, Angeline Morrison and many more.

There’s a full programme of dances and ceilidhs in the town’s Sarah Thorne Theatre, featuring dance workshops and other venues for special shows, including Music Hall, Girl Talk, Gypsy Songs, and a Folk Club with opportunities for everyone to sing a song or strum a tune.

There are around 400 events crammed into one week – including workshops

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The Baroque Collective

Lewes BaroqueFest July 19th to 22nd July

T for all abilities in music. Young musicians can join in with the Band in a Weekend project. There is the everpopular official free pub gig programme and at the bandstand the free Hobby Horse Club attracts hundreds of families who participate in games, singing and dancing with Clarence the Dragon and the festival mascots, the Hooden Horses.

The festival campsite is within walking distance of the town and venues, although there is a free minibus service into town too. It’s a great way of having a holiday by the beach with all the entertainment thrown in!

Visit www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk for more details and how to book.

Broadstairs Folk Week – top: Ranagri; inset: Katie Spencer, photo by Will Killen opp top: His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts – Lewes BaroqueFest opp bottom: Bernardi Music Group and String Academy at Shipley Parish Church – Shipley Arts Festival

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he Baroque Collective, a relatively new group, is back in Lewes for its third Lewes Baroquefest in July 2023. John Hancorn and Julia Bishop, the founders of Lewes Baroquefest, bring together some of the UK’s most talented professional period instrumentalists who are joined by the Baroque Collective Singers, a chamber choir made up of twenty-four auditioned highly experienced amateur and semiprofessional singers.

There are six concerts in 2023, all of which are in St Michael’s Church, High Street, in Lewes. Alison Bury (violin) and Maggie Cole (harpsichord) begin the festival with their recital at 6.30pm on Wednesday 19th July. If you have never heard a bassett horn, then come and listen to the Vauxhall Band play three of them on Thursday 20th at 6.30pm.

The day after, on Friday 21st July, the internationally renowned group Red Priest, led by recorder virtuoso Piers Adams and violinist Julia Bishop, will thrill us with their musical pyrotechnics. The highlight of the festival will be the Splendours of Venice in which The Baroque Collective and Singers will be joined by His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in a programme of Gabrieli, Monteverdi and Rigatti, bringing the Festival to a joyful conclusion on

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performing arts

The Shipley Arts Festival 2023 season

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Saturday 22nd July at 7.00pm.

As an introduction to this year’s Festival on 22nd April the Baroque Collective is presenting Bach’s motet Jesu, Meine Freude and Handel’s tribute to his Patron Queen Caroline The Ways of Zion do Mourn.

Come and enjoy some of the most sublime music written in the Baroque period and performed by the very best period instrumentalists and singers.

The Baroque Collective is launching a Friends and Patrons group who wish to see Baroque music performed locally. We are looking for funds to support LewesBaroquefest 2024 in which we will be presenting Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass. Plans for the future include Handel’s Saul, one of his most exciting oratorios.

For more information see our website www.thebaroquecollective.org.uk.

lthough slightly out of our area, the Bernadi Music Group is performing ‘A Concert for a King’ the day before King Charles III's coronation on Saturday 6th May at Westminster Abbey. The concert is on 5th May from 7:30 to 10:00pm at the beautiful Holy Cross Church, Sparsholt, Oxfordshire OX12 9PU. I would suggest an evening trip out to what I’m sure will be a splendid experience.

Following this the Bernardi Music Group returns with a series of classical concerts, traversing the Sussex wildlife corridor, offering innovative programming, concertos, recitals and a significant world premiere. Join us in observing and embracing the changing seasons throughout the year as we seek to explore, and better understand, the themes and deep rooted connection between the natural world and classical music.

Our long-established Shipley Arts Festival, now into its twenty-third year, remains a key fixture in our musical calendar. We promise inspiring music in beautiful locations and offer our audience a unique opportunity to peek behind the front doors at some of the most stunning churches, halls and private residences across the county and beyond. Our 2023 programme will include musical performances of work specifically commissioned for The Shipley Arts Festival as we continue to work with some of the biggest and brightest names in modern classical music.

The Shipley Arts Festival is also our main platform for showcasing emerging talent and giving the next generation of classical musicians an encouraging and welcoming environment in which to develop and grow. Young musicians from our String Academy programme regularly perform alongside our professional ensembles, and our strong connections with the Yehudi Menuhin School and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich can often prove to be an invaluable stepping stone for young musicians seeking to take their musical career to the next level.

Information about this year's Shipley Arts Festival, our String Academy programme as well as our summer residency at Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens, can be found online. Discover more about us at www.bernardimusicgroup.com

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performing arts stay? North Cornwall is at its late summer best – many visitors have left by then, but the weather and sea should be warm and welcoming!

Visit www.cornwallfolkfestival.com for full details.

Cornwall Folk Festival 50th anniversary 24th to 28th August

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his year Cornwall Folk Festival celebrates its 50th outing, and with a bit of a change to the format. It will run over five days, starting with a Thursday night ceilidh featuring Cornwall’s finest Irish-style musicians, Krelys.

With an agent-imposed embargo now lifted, Cornwall Folk Festival can now announce that their Sunday 27th August headliner is the great Seth Lakeman. As well as his reputation as an international musician of the highest calibre, Seth has a close relationship to the festival, and is the perfect act to close the set of concerts in Wadebridge Town Hall. He grew up musically attending Cornwall Folk Festival sessions and is married to a Wadebridge girl. His father Geoff is also a festival patron.

Friday continues with Gigspanner Big Band who, based on recent performances, are six musicians at the peak of their ability. On Saturday the town-based festival welcomes Kinnaris Quintet, five brilliant Scottish musicians who take the Celtic fiddle tradition to a new level.

Other acts from across Cornwall and the South West include Sarah McQuaid, Our Atlantic Roots, Teyr, Windjammer, Geoff Lakeman and Rob Murch, and Chris Ostler.

During the day, the festival’s FAR Stage features more regional acts from over the bank holiday weekend, plus live music and dance in the streets and sessions in the pubs.

This year the festival itself will close on the August Bank Holiday Monday at its outdoor FAR Stage, which features back-to-back acts mainly from across the Southwest and the closing set will be from Padstow's finest, The Stowes.

Why not combine a trip to the festival, which has run almost every year since 1972, with an extended

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Deal Music and Arts Festival 7th July to 16th July

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eal Festival starts on the 7th July with over fifty events in ten days, incorporating a Literacy stream curated by Gavin Esler and Christopher Cook including PollyToybnee, Philippa Gregory, Pen Vogler and Simon Hegger.

Our Festival will celebrate the Composer David Matthews' 80th birthday – David was himself Artistic Director of Deal Festival for many years. We are working in different venues with a Poetry Day hosted by Jacob Sam-La Rose, poet, performer and educator; we welcome National Youth Jazz Orchestra with Tommy Blaize, lead singer from Strictly Come Dancing and Norma Winstone performs The Soundless Dark, settings of Philip Larkin's poems.

There are regular lunchtime concerts and talks including such artists as Trevor Pinnock and David Matthews. The Changeling Theatre Company bring Love’s Labour’s Lost to Walmer Castle and we are touring churches in Dover and Deal with short recitals by organist Paul Stubbings.

Comedy is included with Hilary Summers romping through the highs and lows of opera and Jessica Walker with Dead Funny Women. We will celebrate Trevor Pinnock's career with a celebration of Mozart with The English Concert and on the final Sunday we will have the award-winning Tredegar Brass Band and the Old Time Sailors at The Astor.

Visit www.dealmusicandarts.com/festival/ for full information – the box office opens 9th May.

top left: The Stowes – Cornwall Folk Festival; above: Jacob Sam-La Rose; above right: Jessica Walker – Deal Music & Arts Festival

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The Festival Theatre at Hever Castle is 40!

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he Festival Theatre has played at Hever Castle, each summer, for the last forty years and is the longest running open-air theatre in the South East.

It is time to celebrate with forty brilliant events to entertain all. The vibrant and varied programme includes opera, plays, jazz, music, speakers, comedy, family favourites and the best tribute artists. The festival opened with Shakespeare forty years ago and will do the same this year as we welcome The Three Inch Fools to The Loggia with As You Like It. As always, events will take place at our picturesque home, the Two Sisters’ Theatre, The Loggia and Anne Boleyn’s Walk and for one night only the castle can be your stunning back drop as you picnic on the main lawn and enjoy Illyria’s production of Pride and Prejudice. Also audiences can enjoy Titipu Tea in the Guthrie Pavilion where singers from Charles Court Opera will serenade a programme of Gilbert & Sullivan while you enjoy afternoon tea.

This year we are excited also to be taking the festival to perform at our neighbours – holding our first ever event at Hever Castle Golf Club with Dinner Jazz. There is also an opportunity to visit two castles in one day as we bring three family events to The Orangery at Chiddingstone Castle.

The box office is now open 07379 488477. Bring your picnic and celebrate with us. For full details and dates visit www.hevercastle.co.uk/festival-theatre/

The 30th Tenterden Folk Festival 5th to 8th October

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his year we celebrate the 30th Tenterden Folk Festival. Guest artists booked so far include some of the top names on the English folk scene such as Pete Coe, who has been described as “A one man industry”. Pete is a multi-instrumentalist playing melodeon, banjo and many other instruments as well as calling for barn dances, step dancing, etc.

We have also booked some young up-and-coming guests including Brown Boots who are Will Allen on melodeon and Martin Clarke on fiddle. Their musical background is playing music for dancing, as well as gaining inspiration from playing with their many talented musical friends at festivals and pub sessions across the country.

Kent based ceilidh band Swing the Bridge will be playing for an English barn dance. They are an experienced, energetic six-piece band. Pete Coe will be calling for them and teaching the dances. There are many other performers including Milton Hide, AKA Jim and Josie Tipler, from East Sussex. The duo weave eloquent, well-crafted songs and stories – Jim’s guitar and Josie’s pure vocal delivery blending perfectly.

Free events will include crafts marquee and stalls, free music stage, dance stage, hundreds of Morris dancers, dance displays, procession, street entertainers, song and music sessions, etc. while ticketed events include concerts, barn dance, special shows, workshops, meet the guests and folk clubs.

Visit www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk for more info.

top: Milton Hide – Tenterden Folk Festival; left top: As You Like It; left: The Two Sisters' Theatre – Hever Castle Festival Theatre

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Lewes Chamber Music Festival 8th to 10th June

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Harp on Wight international Festival Ryde, IOW, 24th to 29th October

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reparartions are well underway for Harp on Wight International's tenth anniversary festival. Some performers are still to be booked, but we are delighted to say several are already confirmed, including Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate who will be playing in the opening concert on the evening of 24th October, and elegant Swiss harpist Helena Ricci's performance on the afternoon of Thursday 26th will include pieces by Philip Glass, Max Richter and Franz Liszt.

Paraguayan harpist Ismael Ledesma – who proved very popular at the 2016 festival – will be returning to perform and teach.

The organizers are also delighted that Ireland's heading traditional harpist Laoise Kelly from County Mayo will also be making her first appearance at the festival. In previous years, Laoise was the Artistic Director of the Achill Island Harp Festival in County Clare which was held at the same time as Harp on Wight, and therefore prevented her from coming to the Isle of Wight.

Tickets for the festival go on sale later in the spring.

For further information about the festival please email harponwight@gmail.com or telephone 01983 730930 or visit www.harponwight.co.uk.

his year’s festival, entitled From Bohemia, takes a deep-dive into the uniquely evocative, colourful and rich output of music by Czech and Moravian composers throughout the 19th and early 20th c Dvoˇák, r Smetana, Reicha century. Music by Janáˇek, and Suk will be performed alongside that of contemporary composers as well as Mozart and Beethoven and many others.

As usual a group of some of the country’s most exciting young musicians will be playing alongside more established names of international repute.

Highlights this year include a Late Night Concert given by the Teyber String Trio – members of which have attended LCMF since its inception in 2012, a brand new arrangement for piano, strings and winds of scenes from Janaˇek’s opera The Cunning c Little Vixen, and an evening entitled The Kreutzer Sonata featuring Janaˇek’s 1st String Quartet and c Beethoven’s 9th Violin Sonata, performed interspersed with readings from Tolstoy’s Novella of the same name by actor Toby Regbo.

As well as the usual ticketed concerts there are also accessible events such as a free lunchtime concert on the Friday, where local school children will be welcomed as part of the regular audience to enjoy world class music-making in the intimate setting of St Michael’s Church, and an open rehearsal on the Thursday afternoon held at the Depot Cinema. Book your tickets now to support this local music festival and experience intimate live performances from outstanding artists.

Tickets free for those under 30. For all details visit www.leweschambermusicfestival.com.

top: Ismael Ledesma – Harp on Wight right: Beatrice Philips Founder and Artistic Director of Lewes Chamber Music Festival, photo Venetia Jollands; opposite page: Good Vibrations Society – bottom: Eva Lazarus; top: Johnny and Crowd, photo by Leyla Güler; right: Dr Sophie Mort – Lewes Speakers Festival

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festivals wood-burning saunas, jacuzzis and a plunge pool set within a peace garden; one-on-one healing treatments and a venue dedicated to talks, where we have, along with SEED TALKS, invited a number of inspiring thought leaders to share their ideas with the society.

Visit www.goodvibrationssociety.com for all information about the festival.

Good Vibrations Society

A weekend of music, ecology and well-being to nourish your soul 4th to 6th August

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omething magical is happening deep in the Ashdown Forest this August! A camping weekend filled with world-class music, inspirational talks, workshops, classes, an outdoor spa with treatments and wild swimming. Whether you're with family or friends, Good Vibrations Society will offer you an opportunity to truly relax in nature at Pippingford Park in the Ashdown Forest.

Enjoy live music throughout the day and night, followed by DJs into the early hours; during the day choose from talks, yoga classes and afternoon workshops, from one of the many activities like hot air ballooning over the forest, to the giant slip and slide into the lake – there's something for everyone.

The younger members of the society can head down to The Hive each day for games, robot building, and circus classes or just slash about in the giant sandpit!

Camping is the best way to enjoy the weekend, whether in a tent, a yurt or your camper, there's plenty of room and a nightly opportunity to lie back and watch the stars.

This year's major addition is extra activities in the mornings and afternoons; a wellbeing area offering

The Lewes Speakers Festival 12th to 14th May

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he festival is back much earlier than normal this year in May, at the All Saints Centre in the town.

It features some of Britain’s best known speakers on: murder and homicide by a top Old Bailey judge and Sky News’s main crime correspondent; witchcraft by the expert and best-selling author Hugh Gaskill; politics by BBC correspondent Steve Richards; education

by Mail on Sunday writer Peter Hitchens; personal development by Dr Sophie Mort; finance by the FT’s expert Claer Barrett and the Sicilian mafia by world renown expert and million copy seller on the subject John Dickie.

There are also new talks on Chinese human rights abuses by the writer Benedict Rogers and UK terrorist incident foils by Independent journalist Lizzie Dearden. Listen to and discuss with: Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC, best-selling historian Alison Weir, Simon Jenkins, Chris Mullin, Prof A. C. Grayling, Martin Brunt, Owen Matthews, Tom Clark, Ed Stourton and Roger Highfield.

Visit www.lewesspeakersfestival.com or call the booking line on: 0333 666 3366 and there are reduced cost tickets if bought before 10th April!

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Southdowns Music Festival It’s gonna be good!!

22nd to 24th September

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he Town Centre and Seafront areas of Bognor Regis will be feasting on a superb array of great music, dance, and much more.

There will be a fantastic offering of free entertainment for locals and visitors to enjoy including the hugely popular Southdowns Ukulele Festival, the third scintillating `Shanty Showdown’, the Southdowns Dance Festival with a host of colourful dance groups, the new Southdowns Beer & Cider Festival, fascinating craft and market stalls, great music sessions, choirs, workshops, children’s entertainments and free events at eight different venues.

The Festival will be centred in and around the Waterloo Square area, with other venues including the William Hardwicke, the Hothampton Arms, the Dog & Duck, the RAFA Club, The Lamb (Steyne Street), Bonito Lounge in the London Road precinct plus Performance Area at the southern end of the precinct, plus the newly refurbished Place St. Maur.

New for this year will be two exciting evening concerts under marquee in Waterloo Square on Friday and Saturday evenings. Kindly promoted by GB Music (Retail) in Aldwick Road, Bognor, the Friday concert will feature 3 Daft Monkeys with Ed Goodale and Friends supporting. Saturday evening will see the brilliant Jigantics taking the stage with support from Ashley Campbell (daughter of legend Glenn Campbell) with Thor Jenson. Tickets for these concerts are available from GB Music.

Visit www.southdownsfolkfest.co.uk for more information or call 07751 594285, and just go to www.gbmusicretail/collections/events for evening concert ticket bookings.

Ashley Campbell, photo by Jordan O'Donnell

Shoreham Wordfest

Celebrating Shakespeare 21st and 22nd April

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t starts with A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shoreham Centre, 21st April 7.30 to 9.45. Love, longing, muddle and mayhem in abundance, performed by the lively Kent-based Bowler Crab Theatre Company.

On 22nd April from 10.30am to 12.30pm there is Celebrating Shakespeare in Words and Music, in the beautiful church of St Mary de Haura. Actors, singers and musicians entertain with songs, sonnets, music and drama from Shakespeare and his times.

Then Elizabethan Songs and Dances, 2.45pm to 4.45pm – a workshop of lovely, easy to grasp, centuries old songs and rounds and a chance to learn some delightful circle dances from Elizabethan times, led by the widely experienced teachers Emily Longhurst and Kathryn Penny.

The day ends with Shakespeare Night Ceilidh 7.45pm to 10.45pm, a night of celebration and merrymaking remembering the great Bard’s birthday. A lively, lovely ceilidh of country and courtly dances with the great Kate’s Kitchen Band and rustic ploughman’s victuals and a tot of mead. Bar available. More info at: www.shorehamwordfest.com.

above: Kate's Kitchen Band at Shakespeare Night Ceilidh; top: Shakespeare Night revels in full swing

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Britten Sinfonia, photo © Benjamin Ealovega

Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival 25th Anniversary Season!

22nd to 25th June Concerts in Peasmarsh and Rye ‘Peasmarsh … is a magical Festival’ Sir David Hare, in The Observer

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he Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in June. This year’s Festival includes nine performances across four days including an orchestral performance featuring the ground-

breaking Britten Sinfonia and our Artistic Directors as concerto soloists in works by Mendelssohn and Saint-Saëns.

We are also delighted to be bringing five local primary schools together for a large scale celebration of their compositions featuring the young award winning Kleio Quartet (Yume Fujise and Katherine Yoon, violins, Jenny Lewisohn, viola and Eliza Millett, cello) following workshops in all five schools, building on over fifteen years of educational partnerships in this special corner of East Sussex.

As always, the Peasmarsh Festival will include a superlative roster of world class artists. In addition to the world-renowned Britten Sinfonia performing with Artistic Directors violinist Anthony Marwood and cellist Richard Lester, will be pianist Stefan Cassomenos, violist Simone van der Giessen and the starry and relatively newly formed Valo Quartet (Maria Włoszczowska and Tim Crawford, violins, Lilli Maijala viola and Amy Norrington, cello). We are delighted to be presenting concerts in the Norman church in Peasmarsh and in St Mary’s in Rye, both beautiful settings in which to listen to stunning classical music. We look forward to welcoming you to our 25th Anniversary Festival in June.

For further information and how to book tickets please visit www.peasmarshfestival.co.uk where the full festival programme is available.

Kleio Quartet; bottom: Peasmarsh church

www.peasmarshfestival.co.uk

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www.petworthfestival.org.uk

www.harponwight.co.uk

Bernardi Music Group Proudly Present

Coming soon

SUMMER CONCERT SERIES ‘23

Bernardi Music Group Music to inspire and connect

SHIPLEY ARTS FESTIVAL 2023 The Bernardi Music Group return in 2023 with a series of concerts across the district as we continue to connect our communities through classical music.

Visit us online for festival dates, tickets & more.

CHICHESTER & HORSHAM

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at HEVER CASTLE

MAY-AUGUST

NEW HORIZONS

FORTY YEARS OF OPEN-AIR THEATRE

IN

THE

CASTLE GARDEN

BREMF IN THE PARK

Friday 30 June evening & Saturday 1 July all day St George’s Church & Royal Spa in Queen’s Park*

« FA M I LY « T H E AT R E « M U S I C « S P E A K E R S «

Celebrate summer indoors and out with music, dancing, participation and a festival vibe!

BREMF AUTUMN SEASON «

COMEDY

«

OPERA

«

JAZZ

«

BALLET

«

www.hevercastle.co.uk/festival-theatre/ HEVERFESTIVAL.CO.UK 07379

488477

Brighton Early Music Festival returns with events including Secret Byrd, an immersive performance by The Gesualdo Six & Fretwork; medieval gems with La Fonte Musica from Italy; family events and workshops.

For more info and to join the mailing list for ticket alerts visit bremf.org.uk

*subject to funding

Thursday 12 – Saturday 28 October

including

TREVOR PINNOCK WITH ENGLISH CONCERT NATIONAL YOUTH JAZZ ORCHSTRA WITH TOMMY BLAIZE RESONATE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA POETRY DAY HOSTED BY JACOB SAM-LA ROSE NORMA WINSTONE • IAIN BALLAMY TRIO HILARY SUMMERS • JESSICA WALKER WRITERS INCLUDING PHILIPPA GREGORY, POLLY TOYNBEE, PEN VOGLER www.dealmusicandarts.com ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

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This August Bank Holiday

Escape To Cornwall!

11-18 AUGUST 2023 F O L K M U S I C BY THE SEA

11-18 AUGUST SE TH LAKEMAN | LA D Y M2023 A I S E R Y | T IM E DE Y FOLK MUSIC G R A N NY'S ATTIC | THE JERE BMYI ATHHSE | SUERABA N F O L K Q U A R T E T TH LAKEMAN | LADY| TMAISERY EDE| YR A N A G R I H O ME SE SERVICE | BANTER H E O F TE N| TIHME RD GHRA | THE&JEREMIAHS A RNNY'S MONIAATTIC | HONEY THE B E A R || URBA W I L LNPFOLK A G E |QUARTET PATAKAS E SERVICE | BANTER T HHOM E HILL TOP CEILIDH BAN| DTHE | COFTE O R A CN LHERD E | W |I NRANAGRI TER WILSON HARMONIA | HONEY &| THE KA T IE SPENCER SUNTBEA O UR S| UWILL S S O PAGE | C L U B| PATAKAS DEBRIS THEE RE HILL TOP CEILIDH BANDB A| NCORACLE WINTER TH LENTLESS CEILIDH D | J O N | WI L K E S |WILSON NICK DOW KATIE SPENCER | SUNTOU SUSSO | CLUB DEBRIS D A VE E LL IS & BOO HOWAR D | S U T H E R I N G | DA N S E A L E Y T HE RE LENTLESS CEILIDH BAND | JON W ILKES | NICK DOW BEN & DOM | WILDW O O D J A C K | W I L L A L L E N DA VE E LLIS & BOO HOWARD | SUTHERING | DAN SEALEY M A L COLM MACWATT | ELVIS F O N T E N O T & T H E S U G A R B E E S BEN & DOM | WILDWOOD JACK | WILL ALLEN S HLCOLM A KE MEMACWATT UP SALLY| ELVIS |JOHNFONTENO & D I C UT LL& ETHE N | BSUGAR E C K Y BEES SYSON MA N |CUB LOLEN B K E| NBECKY W A R D SYSON S HAKE MEANGELINE UP SALLY MORRI |JOHN S&ODI PLUS MANY MORE T O| BOB B E A KENWARD NNOUNCED! ANGELINE MORRISON . CEILIDHS . WO RKSHOPS . CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL PLUS MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED! CONCER TS . CRAFT &. MUS IC FAIR .. FESTIV AL CAMPSITE DANCES C ONCER TS . CEILIDHS WORKSHOPS CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL DANCES . CRAFT & MUSIC FAIR . FESTIV AL CAMPSITE

C O R N W A L L

F L FS V L Wadebridge, North Cornwall Thu 24th-Mon 28th Aug 2023

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!

T I C K E T S A V AILABLE NOW!

WWW.BROADSTAIRSFOLKWEEK.ORG.UK BOX OFFICE: 01843 604080 www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk W W W. BROADSTAIRSFOLKWEEK.ORG.UK

BOX OFFICE: 01843 604080

SETH LAKEMAN KINNARIS QUINTET GIGSPANNER BIG BAND Sarah McQuaid Teyr Krelys Our Atlantic Roots Windjammer Geoff Lakeman & Rob Murch Chris Ostler The Stowes + more

Cwww.cornwallfolkfestival.com ORNWALLFOLKFESTIVAL.COM/e-tickets

The 30th Tenterden folk festival

Tenterden, the Jewel of the Weald

Thursday 5thto Sunday 8th October 2023

www.tenterdenfolkfestival.com Guests will include: Brown Boots (Will Allen & Martin Clarke) Ceol Na Mara (Emma Clarke and Jim Richards) Discovery (Jeff & Elaine Gillett) Drywood (Denise Dryburgh and Phil Underwood) Erin Mansfield, Keith Kendrick & Sylvia Needham Mick Ryan & Paul Downes Milton Hide (Jim and Josie Tipler) Pete Coe, Pip Ives, Steve Turner Swing the Bridge with caller Pete Coe Up to 50 Morris sides and dance display teams

Many events are FREE

www.southdownsfolkfest.co.uk Tenterden Folk Festival: Charity No. 1038663

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ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

festivals

8–10 JUNE 2023

LEWES CHAMBER MUSIC F ESTIVAL

from

Bohemia

Join us for a weekend of intimate chamber music in one of England’s most historic and picturesque towns. This year featuring music from:

JANÁČEK, SMETANA, BEETHOVEN, WHITLEY, AND MUCH MORE...

Featuring: Beatrice Philips, Tim Crawford, Kathy Gowers, Sini Simonen, Tom Hankey, Adam Newman, Edgar Francis, Hannah Sloane, Tim Posner, Vashti Hunter, Bengt Forsberg, Alasdair Beatson, Ben Mellefont, Amy Harman, Ben Goldscheider, Toby Regbo.

TICKETS ON SALE: FRIDAY 7 TH APRIL leweschambermusicfestival.com www.leweschambermusicfestival.com

www.thebaroquecollective.org.uk.

LEWES SPEAKERS FESTIVAL 12th to 14th May The All Saints Centre, Lewes

THE JUNE EDITION FRIDAY 2 - SATURDAY 3 JUNE 2023

THE STARS COME OUT TO PLAY

A festival of ideas with speakers of all backgrounds and interests. mainly centring on politics, literature ideas and history.

All of the presenters are leaders in their fields and most are nationally recognised figures.

at Midhurst Rother College

For details of all speakers see website.

www.lewesspeakersfestival.com Box office: 0333 666 3366

Bernard d’Ascoli (credit: Maxine Sabater)

BEN WATERS

Friday 2 June 7.30pm - 9.30pm Quality rhythm & blues from the boogie-woogie maestro

GYLES BERNARD BRANDRETH D’ASCOLI Saturday 3 June 11.30am - 1.00pm An audience with the brilliant raconteur and TV personality

Saturday 3 June 7.30pm - 9.20pm The acclaimed pianist plays Ravel, Schubert and Chopin

Box Office (online only) opens 21 March 2023

www.petworthfestival.org.uk petworthfestival

petworthfestival

PetworthFest

Midhurst Rother College, North Street, Midhurst, West Sussex GU29 9DT

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poetry prose & illustration

book reviews Darragh

by Natasha Murray A toddler is missing. Snatched from under his mother's nose nine months ago, little Darragh Hearn has not been seen since and the trail has gone cold, despite the best efforts of Cork's finest.

Darragh's parents, Seth and Jules, famous across the city and beyond for their popular music, were now well-known for desperately seeking their missing son as they posted heart-broken appeals to their many fans to keep a look out for their precious boy.

Jules blamed herself, but she could hardly have prevented her son's abduction as she herself was being held prisoner by the man who had kidnapped them both, a sex addict with dubious mental stability who, Jules was convinced, had subsequently sold Darragh.

Seth's granny had always been able to communicate with the spirit world, so Seth called upon her help to find little Darragh. With her assistance they began to build a picture, albeit hazy, of what might be happening to his son. Relieved that the spirits confirmed Darragh was still alive, Seth and Jules redoubled their efforts to find him.

More people became involved, activity in the spirit world intensified as both Seth and Jules started to perceive the presence of those who were attempting to

help – or hinder – their efforts.

But with promising leads ending in blind alleys and a series of nail-biting near misses resulting in tragedy, the search was not yet over.

Against the backdrop of Cork in the grip of winter during the aftermath of the covid pandemic, the author pits good against evil, rationality against insanity, hope against despair. At the heart of the story is the frailty of the human condition, its excesses of aberration and the depths to which it can sink, versus the indomitable strength of the human spirit and, despite all odds, the strand of hope that spurs it onward.

This book is certainly not a walk in the park.

Willing for a happy outcome for the desperate couple, the reader of this story has to wait until the very end to discover Darragh's fate!

Darragh is the fourth book in Natasha Murray's Waterfall Way series. It is available from Amazon, where you can find more of the author's books.

Game, Set and Death

by Phil Hall

When popular tennis coach Russell Dawson was found dead in the middle of a tennis court, the hunt for his killer revealed more than anticipated.

Set in the respectable Surrey Hills market town of Reigate, Game, Set and Death pits the wits of methodical Detective Inspector Scott Bee against the unknown perpetrator. Although ably assisted by young police officer Jess Bartlett, Bee was missing some of his usual team – out of action due to covid. To fill this void the chief has drafted in DS Ron McTierney, transferred fresh from Norfolk, a police officer whose intuitive approach to crime-solving was like cheese to the chalk of Bee's methods.

Despite the inevitable teething problems as the two men started to get the measure of each other, exacerbated by the budding romance between McTierney and Jess Bartlett, the trio settle into an awkward yet somehow effective rhythm and start to make progress.

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After a tangle of leads, dead ends and hunches the team arrive eventually at a conclusion about the killer's identity.

The only drawback is that the vital proof continues to evade them. When Jess befriends a terrified young tennis player who seems to have lost her mojo, she suspects they have found their missing witness. But due to a crucial misunderstanding the team fractures, with tragic consequences.

Mixing tennis, football, drugs and corruption, Game, Set and Death exposes a seedy underbelly in the otherwise genteel Surrey town.

Available from Amazon and East Grinstead Bookshop, it is Phil Hall's second novel. For more info about the author go to www.philhallauthor.com

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poetry prose & illustration

Murder in the Pays d'Oc and other Tales

by Patricia Feinberg Stoner

The early evening sun gilds the ancient stone steps as they wind round past the church to the river. Only one thing mars this tranquil scene: the body of Gaspard Petit, as he lies twisted at the bottom of the steps, his neck bent at an impossible angle. His open eyes stare up into the unseeing sky. A tragic accident? Or could it be murder?

This intriguing tale of Gaspard Petit's untimely end is Patricia Feinberg Stoner's latest foray into that part of the south of France that she once called home.

Gaspard Petit had only one thing on his mind... himself. All his actions and decisions were intrinsically self-centred. Strutting through life breaking hearts with his trusty motorcycle and distressed leathers he was, as a young man, the ultimate bad boy. A spell in Paris as a jewel thief fuelled his arrogance.

But time has not been kind to him and with age came the inevitable results of his dissolute lifestyle. Now fat, grubby and often drunk he blunders around the little village of Morbignan la Crebe, thrusting his puffy face into people's lives and upsetting all those around him with his poisonous attitude.

There is hardly anybody in the village who does not have a motive for wishing Petit's disappearance

Still Life

Bourne to Write 26 writers, artists & photographers react to Covid-19 Living through the Covid-19 pandemic posed a particular problem for the writers of fiction, namely how to create work in a world which seemed to have risen ready made from the genre of dystopian fiction.

Bourne to Write workshop leader Roddy Phillips said "Meeting in groups on Zoom broadened the scope of our workshops in so many ways but it also added an unreal element. For a time we were all characters in a fiction of someone else's making. So how to react to such a life-changing situation? Some of the workshop writers avoided the subject like the plague while others grasped it by the throat."

Whatever one's own take on the pandemic of 2020 it cannot be denied that it altered society and pushed many people to, and sometimes beyond, their limits.

Throughout history people have tried to make sense of life's challenging events, both large and

– his long-suffering wife; the innocent young girl he abandoned; his next-door neighbours, plagued incessantly by him; the policeman whom he humiliated years before, the memory of which still rankles – are any of them capable of murder?

Murder in the Pays d'Oc is preceded in this volume

by Tales from the Pays d'Oc, twenty-two tales of life, love and laughter under the Languedoc skies. You can feel the scorch of the sun on your shoulders, smell the dust and the lavender and the ripening grapes while following the adventures and antics of both locals and ex-pats. Tales from the Pays d'Oc is set in and around the small market town of St Remy les Cevennes, where an informal multi-national gathering known as the Saturday Club takes place, and the village of Morbignan la Crebe, where the good ol' boys while away their mornings in the shade of a big plane tree in the village square.

Having previously read Tales from the Pays d'Oc I was already familiar with these colourful characters and their amusing exploits but it was a delight to revisit them, setting the scene as they do for the main event, Murder in the Pays d'Oc. Thoroughly enjoyable and light-hearted, Murder in the Pays d'Oc and Other Tales is available from Heygates Bookshop in Bognor, at Pier Road Coffee & Art in Littlehampton and also from Amazon. small. While some might take recourse to therapy, the pub or a rant on Twitter, creative souls – being particularly well equipped to respond to such events – do so through the medium of their art form, dissecting their experiences and laying them out for all to see. Thus we find the paintings and poetry of war, music of love and loss, movies and novels of great political and cultural events.

So it is with the Bourne To Write creative writing group. In the wake of the most extraordinary event to be experienced collectively since WWII what more obvious topic was there to tackle than the pandemic and its effects. Here the gamut of emotions are on display: an insight into the experience of someone on the front lines; the devastating ennui of enforced lockdown; reminiscences of less stressful times, and so much more. Each tale and poem, whether drawn from the writer's own experience, borrowed, or imagined, is an acute insight into the human condition under duress. Such imagination. Bravo Bourne to Write.

Available at Amazon and www.bournetowrite.co.uk.

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poetry prose & illustration

ingénu/e chats to writer Patricia Feinberg Stoner ingénu/e's first encounter with writer Patricia Feinberg Stoner was with the publication of her collection of comic verse 'Pawprints in the Butter', described by us at the time as 'perfect as a gift for cat lovers, lovers of good verse and those who love to laugh'.

As well as having poetry and short stories published in various anthologies she has published two books based on her experiences as an ex-pat in the south of France: 'At Home in the Pays d’Oc' and 'Tales from the Pays d’Oc'. The latter has now been given a new lease of life and reissued with the inclusion of her most recent tale 'Murder in the Pays d’Oc'.

Your new novella 'Murder in the Pays d'Oc' revisits rural France. What prompted you to return?

It was my husband, Patrick. I was just putting 'Tales from the Pays d’Oc' to bed, and musing idly about what would come next, when he announced: “You ought to write a murder mystery”.

That got me thinking. The Languedoc is dear and familiar territory and I’ve got plenty more stories from the almost thirty years we lived there, on and off. I would set the story in the framework of a birthday party, with all the suspects assembled. Hardly original, I know. But then I could write the tale of how each suspect had reason to wish Gaspard harm.

In 'Tales from the Pays d'Oc' the characters seem drawn from life. Is the central figure in 'Murder in the Pays d'Oc', the oafish Gaspard Petit, based on anyone in particular?

Anyone who has read my first book, 'At Home in the Pays d’Oc', has already met Gaspard! His name was Michel Goubert and he was our neighbour in France for many years. For some reason he took a dislike to us, probably because we were English, and he used to pull charming little stunts like cutting our phone wires – not once but three times. I’ve written a new story in 'Tales from the Pays d’Oc', Chickengate, to introduce him to new readers.

Nearly every story is based on personal experience, however tenuous, and yes, the characters are mostly based on real people.

When did you start writing?

Like most writers, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. It started with school essays, English was my favourite subject and my poor long-suffering teachers were always having to rein back my enthusiasm. I adored purple prose. At university I worked on the college magazine, and when it came to finding a job I was lucky enough to land a trainee place on what was then quite a prestigious regional paper, sadly now defunct. I was a journalist, advertising copywriter and publicist for most of my working life.

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I started writing semi-fiction when we were living in France.

I wrote a column for the magazine French Property News called At Home in the Pays d’Oc. It was a humorous take on the life of an ex-pat. There was huge excitement when someone from Harper Collins contacted me: would I think of turning these articles into a book?

Sadly, it came to nothing, as these things so often do, but it gave me the impetus to start writing in earnest.

Do you have any advice for those setting out on their writing journey?

Sit down and have a long hard think about what you want from the book. Don’t have huge expectations of fame and fortune, because unless you are very lucky, they won’t come. Write for the joy and satisfaction of writing.

Once you have finished the book, the really hard work begins. If you want a traditional publishing contract you will first have to find yourself an agent, which isn’t easy, because most mainstream publishers won’t accept direct submissions.

If you are going to go independent, beware of socalled publishers who would love to publish you, or who are dying to read your manuscript. The chances are, they will cost you a lot of money for very little return. Self or indie publishing has come a long way from the days when it was sneered at as vanity press, and with new platforms such as Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark you can do it for very little money.

I would make two very crucial points: 1. Before you submit to a publisher or put your book on Amazon, get an editor, or at least a beta reader who is not your auntie or your best friend.

An independent eye is essential: you are too close to your own work to see any flaws, errors or plot holes.

2. Promote, promote, promote. This is the difficult bit: promotion can never let up if you want to get noticed. Use all the media you are comfortable with: press, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Insta and so on.

But don’t just bang on about how wonderful your book is – that gets old very quickly – think of new and refreshing ways to get the message out there.

What can we look forward to next from you?

I’m taking a step back from books. That said, I am thinking about putting together a collection of stories featuring the redoubtable Mrs Arbuthnot.

Read the full interview at www.ingenuemagazine.co.uk

ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

h s a fl

poetry prose & illustration

flash fiction flash fiction flash fiction flash fiction flash fiction flash fic

Spring

–by Emily Longhurst

There's something about the spring that grabs you, that invites and coaxes you, that delights and fills you.

It is something in the air, in the wafting fragrances from a thousand flowers. It is in the drone of bees and the relaxing warmth of the sun.

It reaches you through the exquisite play of light on leaves – translucent jewels that flutter gently in the breeze.

There is something in the warm ground that quietly, and sometimes suddenly, rises up in you, something living, alert, powerful and inexorable.

Something of the fecund and mysterious way that life just arrives and engulfs you defies words or analysis. Here it is, burgeoning from the earth that, not so long ago was cold and rain drenched, still and silent, covered in decaying leaves and old sticks.

Waiting.

I think now that it is this feeling, this rising sap that is accountable for the strange and remarkable happenings of that early Spring day.

Sitting here in the sun I can still see it, still feel the thrill that ran through me.

We were just over there, in that meadow, all flower filled and humming, just as it is now. All the long, quiet afternoon lying on our backs, watching the sky, the myriad little flying things, their gossamer wings all a-sparkle. Nothing else seemed to exist. Everything, all the noise and bustle of life had just drifted away like the high small wisps of cloud that disappeared in evaporating filigree shapes so high in the great endless blue vault of heaven above us.

You were holding a dandelion seed head, all perfect. I remember watching the way the light shone on the seeds, they were like a halo of life. Each one so perfect and poised, ready to fly wherever the wind took it. To spread life with abandon and beauty.

Feeling the million juicy grass stems pressing into our backs we felt filled with this same life, this same juice. I wanted to breathe it right in and let it consume me. I wanted to release whatever hold I still had on my earthly concerns and burst into a million

shimmering pieces, to be blown on the warm Spring air. This air that I could feel against my cheek, so immediate and present and inviting and calling. And then I let go, and so did you, do you remember?

I remember turning to you and touching your hand, and then watching as my fingers became a shimmering pattern of points of life, all free and rising, and so did yours. I watched as the edges of you began to soften, to shimmer, to be released, and you dissolved into the air, and so did I. It was bliss.

I remember rising high on the warm breeze, and becoming the sunlight. I was dancing with the shining insects, mingled with the scent of flowers. I was high in the soft leaves of the trees, I was everywhere. And nowhere. I had left my self and become the Spring. I don't know how we became ourselves again, nor do you, But we did. I'm going into the meadow now to see if it will happen again...

That first deep breath –by Margaret Cheyne

There it is. At last. The thing I've been longing for.

After months of waiting the anticipation has grown ever stronger until it was almost unbearable. Every morning I would clamber out of bed and fling open the window to breathe in a great draught of fresh air.

At first the chill would send me coughing and shivering back under the covers. Then the air would just set my nostrils tingling. But today – today was different.

With that first deep breath came a subtle fragrance, a welcome fragrance. The smell of things starting to grow. Spring is on its way.

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e o p poetry prose & illustration

When The Wild Garlic Comes

At a bend in the brook come March On the rump of a hillock Wild garlic chimes the start of spring.

Grubby broad-blade spear-shaped leaves Stab their way, green-grey through gritty ground.

Unspared by gaunt and naked trees From rain-dropped mud corona rings.

Pluck a leaf, wash in the waters running by, Crush it, sniff it, chew it, Taste the peppery hit on the tip of your tongue All palate pervading umami warmth.

Take some to your cottage – garnish for the eponymous pie.

Come April shafts of lighter green climb into the now dappled light, Lance-tips where soon-to-be-white bulbous flowers bulge.

Don’t snap these shafts – grip gently at the base Then pull slow and steady from the deep dark soil.

Chop fine to crown your carbonara or sprinkle on your buffalo wings Or tumble into the first soup of the sorrel season To add a slightly pungent and astringent zing.

Come Mayday, as the brook chugs slowly by, A numinous wall-to-wall of white Refracts the incandescent light That breaks through blossom-laden blackthorn boughs.

Now come the glory days, or weeks, Until the flowers fade and meet their doom To set seeds blacker than a new moon night

By all means pick the leaves and lances still.

But now they taste much fatter in the mouth, A taint of well-hung game faint on the nose Use now to grace your Whitsun lamb, Or calves liver, while you drink Bordeaux.

Come early June, the rot sets in.

Priapic lances now bereft of pride, Like legionaries beset by Punic war, Fall on their swords.

Come midsummer morn, as beauty fades, a stagnant stench catches the throat.

The spears decay to rusty brown Whilst seeds dive deep into the soil to gloat Until the cycle turns once more.

–Al Campbell

One to Twelve

A tidy man-made concept time that links the days, the months, the years and back like carriages to a train.

And sometimes we might glance out on this landscape passed before its paths well-worn with history travelled its lessons learned but since forgotten.

–Ali Giles

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y r t poetry prose & illustration

Courtship

Aisle Can't Hold Us

To think that soon after we met, you said I wasn’t the type you usually go for.

But you didn’t expand.

Some rainy, winter midweek night in a soulless pub somewhere where we quietly shared your disappointment and bottled cider with too much ice.

And out the window, through the rain, a hundred red flags waving, though I didn’t point them out; we were agreed, I think, even then, upon our respective roles.

I am astride a panic.

There are wild horses, the size of squirrels, where my heart should be.

They are racing to get out through my chest.

There is a brace of ferrets under my skin, trying to escape through my fingers or any hole they can find.

All the items are the same items, it’s frozen deja vu.

Salt and pepper and chilli and salt and chicken and beef and the potato smileys are leering at me.

I am trapped with hash browns, waffles are the bars on my cage.

Sometimes I can't stand anyone walking behind me, so I stand still so they can pass me, but sometimes they stand still behind me, because they need to go round me to get to the chocolate flavoured frozen carrots for kids and my basket is on top of the freezer.

A man shouted at me here because I asked him not to queue jump. He didn’t see me because I was getting something out of a freezer at the same time as queuing. Today, when I get to it, the line has no discernible beginning or end. The staff smile like the potatoes from before, but I see through it. I am astride a panic, and it’s dragging me behind the horse, through the night, seeing nothing but dark. Gallops are the thump of my heart, the beep of the till goes fast, before it flatlines. And I go outside, where it is slightly less cold than Iceland (the shop).

–Ali Giles

Once

You were once a woman they all turned to.

Here you are: missing him still, like a child but you don’t tell them because love is for the young.

He’s a dull ache in your chest he’s a thousand sleepless hours herded nightly and quiet, filling the corners corralled by the ticking clock.

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame And so every morning you get up and every Sunday you are reminded you were once a woman they all turned to.

–Ali Giles

Ali Giles is an Eastbourne-based writer working in both poetry and prose. She is currently working on her first novel. More of Ali’s work can be found in the Bourne to Write anthology ‘Beautiful Lies’ and online at www.bournetowrite.co.uk

–Joe Bunn

N.B. All poems shown are subject to copyright

Joe Bunn can be found as the self-proclaimed Bard of Worthing on facebook.com/bardofworthing. Contact him on bardofworthing@gmail.com ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

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poetry prose & illustration

Royal Magic When I was a tiny girl, I watched the SS Gothic sail into Sydney Harbour with the Queen on her first visit to Australia. I had no idea that years later I would be standing beside Her Majesty in the foyer of the Odeon Leicester Square!

Working as the first woman manager for the Rank Organisation in London’s glamorous West End, I was surrounded by the Royal Family, guiding children forward to present bouquets, holding a Royal stole, or being smiled at by the Queen and her family! There were constant World Premieres, Royal Film performances, Charity Performances, award winning films – and movie stars, media and rock stars, and huge crowds to control. My memoir 'The Lights of Leicester Square' shows beautiful photographs, including a young Prince Charles, smiling along with his family. Those were glamorous years, and even HM the late Queen Elizabeth was ‘touched’ when she received the book and ‘was pleased to be reminded of those memorable times.’

The West End has changed, but watching a film in a darkened cinema is more exciting than streaming.

Movies will continue, reviving history, exploring the future and our dreams and ideas. And British royalty lives on. Grown up and older from those pictures in my memoir, in this Coronation year, we have a new King, Charles III. –Felicity Fair Thompson Princess Anne and Prince Charles at the Royal Premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Photo by Harry Myers

"What is more glamorous than a movie premiere? If you love the movies, you will relish this book over and over again." MICHAEL GRADE

subscribe to ingénu/e magazine & never miss a copy For just £14.95/year you can have your own copy delivered to your door each quarter. To subscribe just email subscribe@ingenuemagazine.co.uk More info: www.ingenuemagazine.co.uk

PUBLISHED IN THIS BEAUTIFUL HARDBACK EDITION order from your local book shop UK £35.00 or direct from www.wightdiamondpress

Featured on BBC SOUTH TODAY: https://www.felicityfairthompson.co.uk/bbc-south-today

Includes more than 150 fabulous press photographs.

International stars! Royalty! Celebrities! Rock stars! The secrets, the magic, the golden years of cinema!

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creative courses & workshops

The Music Tutor Adam Phillips is The Music Tutor, offering comprehensive in-person and online tuition in violin, piano, guitar, ukulele, bodhran and celtic fiddle.

Adam is certainly well placed to teach traditional fiddle, he is a direct descendant of the 18th century Scottish composer and fiddler William Marshall, who is credited as creating ‘the first Strathspeys of the age’.

On top of that Adam’s mixed Basque and AustroHungarian lineage has given him a natural affinity with both traditional and classical violin music.

“I think a really great tutor should be able to guide their students on a path of discovery while having the ability to adapt to their individual wants and needs,” said Adam.

Adam is a popular all-round instrumental tutor teaching mainly in Sussex, although Zoom has now broadened that dramatically.

“I still teach in-person but I think people are surprised at how effective online lessons can be. I have my own unique method,” he continued, “which contains the best of Suzuki and Colourstrings. I also utilise mindfulness and reflective techniques.

This aims to raise students’ confidence in lessons by increasing their awareness of playing. It is a person-centred approach with a strong emphasis on fun delivered to think in a kind and gentle manner.”

After completing his music studies, Adam took masterclasses with international soloist and Menuhin student Leland Chen, who was to have a considerable influence on his own playing.

“I think that gave me the confidence and experience to help my students achieve their goals,” he said. “The lessons I provide are a collaboration between myself and the learner. By using this approach, the learner is quickly put at ease and the balance of power is nicely and evenly distributed.”

To book your instrument lessons with Adam log onto http://themusictutor.org

http://themusictutor.org

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creative courses & workshops

Art Junction Courses in Sculpture, Drawing and Painting Looking for a community of like minded people who enjoy making art? Why not join us at our studio in Billingshurst?

We provide a friendly welcoming environment and a range of diverse affordable courses to choose from in both sculpture and drawing.

For those who would like to try their hand at figurative sculpture, there are several exciting courses focussing on the human form. These are taught by professional sculptors Hazel Reeves and Mark Longworth in small friendly groups with an emphasis on one-to-one tutoring.

On the drawing front, we run life drawing three sessions per week on Tuesdays and Fridays. There is also a fantastic opportunity to join Ben LaughtonSmith’s three-day workshop in July, Portrait in Charcoal & Chalk.

The popular Abstract Garden sculpture with artist Michael Joseph will be running again this summer. If you are interested in making a large sculpture for your garden this is a fun course that will guarantee a result.

Bursting on the scene with plenty of colour, Abstraction Through Mark Making, offered by Michael is guaranteed to be a joyful experience not to be missed.

Designed to offer a toolkit of ideas and methods, you’ll be kickstarted into the wonderful world of line and colour to make unique designs of your own.

Art Junction is situated opposite Billingshurst railway station; there is free parking available.

All levels of experience are welcome. For full details please visit www.artjunction.uk and for any queries please email Marji at info@artjunction.uk.

from top: Abstract paintings by Michael Joseph; portrait drawing workshop; Sculpture portrait session with tutor Hazel Reeves and model Chris Benefield; Chris with the finished portraits

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creative courses & workshops

Mantis Art Studio and Gallery Opening this April in Midhurst is a brand new art studio and gallery run by Leticia Silva dos Santos, founder and tutor of Art Classes in West Sussex.

After building her business teaching group art classes from The Old Library, Leticia is now taking on a new venture, establishing a permanent home from which to run her classes, allowing her to expand the range and style of classes she is able to offer, and encourage engagement with the arts in the community.

Mantis Art Studio and Gallery will be a community art hub, showcasing art from local and emerging artists alongside exhibitions by local art groups. The studio will offer a variety of weekly art classes, clubs and workshops, for adults and children. To look forward to this Easter are: Life drawing (kids and adult), Easter crafts – chick/bunny mobile making, egg carton spring flower bouquet making, and botanical drawing.

The studio will have a grand opening in the beginning of April, complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony, a complimentary drink, and a raffle for a £100 voucher for artwork or classes. Plus, the chance to chat to and get to know the art- Follow @mantisartstudio_midhurst or email ists, who will be announced over the next couple of weeks. Leticia_artist@hotmail.com to be in the know!

Made and Making Fancy a little crafty fun?

In a light and airy studio with an outlook over curated gardens and a coffee shop opposite is the creative hub that is Made and Making.

In a relaxed environment, where there are no silly questions, Made and Making pride themselves on putting everyone at ease and helping them develop an amazing array of skills. They have short classes, workshops and courses in a wide variety of activities from sewing, patchwork, crochet and felting, through to more alternative sessions in mixed media printing, silk paper making, calligraphy, weaving, floristry and more.

But did you know that they run retreats too?

If you fancy two days away from it all then look no further. They run sewing, dressmaking and patchwork retreats giving the opportunity to work on your own projects with expert help and also partake in bite-size educational sessions. For their crochet retreat they take over a whole hotel, the lovely Random Hall Hotel, just outside Horsham. With sofas and open fires it’s the perfect crochet location. But if you just enjoy turning your hand to all manner of crafts then check out their craft retreat where everything is included… what could be more relaxing!

More details at www.madeandmaking.co.uk.

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creative courses & workshops

JOIN US FOR DRAWING & SCULPTURE COURSES

Roz Nathan

Artwork / Courses / Demos

New Spring / Summer Courses starting in April Face-to-Face – Roz’s Studio / 1-1 lessons in your home Weekly Live Zoom Classes – Landscape / Botanical / Collage / Wildlife / Drawing Friendly, fun sessions providing demos, discussions and feedback, with recordings available for students to download.

Online – One-to-One tutorials / Guidance / Live demos Art Groups – Demos / Workshops Summer Schools – Roz’s popular East Dean workshops Painting Holidays – Landscape Painting in Aberdeenshire

Fancy something different this Spring?

We run ongoing courses in life drawing, figurative and abstract sculpture. Why not join us?

We are a friendly open studio where all levels of experience are welcome.

Casting service, bisque kiln firing available, studio space for rent

For details and testimonials: www.roznathanart.com roz.nathan@hotmail.com • 07913 080061 •

subscribe to ingénu/e magazine & never miss a copy For just £14.95/year you can have your own copy delivered to your door each quarter. To subscribe just email subscribe@ingenuemagazine.co.uk More info: www.ingenuemagazine.co.uk

Visit www.artjunction.uk Any questions? Contact Marji at: info@artjunction.uk

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creative courses & workshops

COMING SOON...

Mantis Art Studio A N D

G A L L E R Y

Dean House, Bepton Road, Midhurst GU29 9LY Follow for updates: @mantisartstudio_midhurst

https://www.facebook.com/ArtClassesinWestSussex/ Art Classes @artclassesinwestsussex leticia_artist@hotmail.com

www.madeandmaking.co.uk

in West Sussex

MOORHOUSE ART @ THE MILL ARUNDEL

Art classes with Karin Moorhouse Oil Painting Life Drawing Workshops Elements of Drawing Print Making with group discussions, interaction and outings plus plenty of 1-1 tuition

Visit www.moorhouse-art.com for details, mailing list and booking info ingénu/e magazine – south downs and high weald : issue 39

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creative courses & workshops

PLAY YOUR HEART OUT at Music Summer School 2023

Take part this July 2023 across five venues in Brighton & Hove and East Sussex. Bursaries available.

https://createmusic.org.uk/summer-school createmusic.org.uk/summer-school

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PLAY YOUR HEART OUT AT

Create Music’s Summer School 2023 Music education service Create Music’s Summer School returns between 3rd and 21st July, offering 36 one-day to three-day courses for young musicians at five locations across Brighton and East Sussex.

musicians, each course will end with a celebration performance, giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their new-found skills.

Current Create Music students will receive a 10% discount on course fees and there are also 50% bursaries available for students in receipt of certain income-related benefits.

For more information, prices, and to book a place, visit www.createmusic.org/summerschool.

Aimed at 6 to 18 year olds at all stages of their musical journey, the courses are delivered by Create Music’s team of experienced music teachers and supervisors. Topics include instrument specific workshops, full ensemble playing, rock and pop and dedicated composition courses. Open Access courses are also available for students with no prior musical experience to try something new, such as ukelele, singing, samba band and debut music production.

Providing a fun and engaging learning experience that supports and encourages young

Roz Nathan

Natural History Artwork / Courses / Demos Roz Nathan’s art practice explores the natural world using water-based and mixed media and she exhibits locally and nationally.

A qualified art tutor with many years’ experience in teaching a wide range of subjects and media, Roz currently offers both Zoom and studio courses, as well as regularly delivering art group demos and workshops.

Face to face sessions in May and June are available in Roz’s rural studio for small groups or private lessons, working within a creative and supportive environment – sitting outside on the lawn is a great location for lunch!

Roz is also offering relaxed sessions in students’ homes, either one-to-one or with one or two friends.

These could take the form of a short course on a particular subject area or medium or developing personal projects.

In July and August Roz’s popular East Dean Summer workshops are running again and new for this year is a four-day Landscape Painting course in Aberdeenshire.

Online, students can also learn in the comfort of their own home with weekly live Zoom courses –

Landscape, Collage, Wildlife, Drawing and Botanical – relaxed, enjoyable group sessions with close-up demos, encouraging feedback and recordings supplied.

Monthly online live painting demos, mentoring and one-to-one personal project development tutorials will also be available.

Contact roz.nathan@hotmail.com, 07913 080061 or visit www.roznathanart.com.

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Coda

It's spring, yet for some the light is fading Please forgive the slightly melancholic overture to this flow of musings, I’m sure it will improve as I shift through the gears.

There’s no doubt about it, I am, as they say, ‘getting on’. Although I like the fact that I still think of myself as having the mind of a twenty-year-old, albeit a mind which is somewhat slower at times than it was, I’m afraid it appears my body seems to be in disagreement. Nevertheless, although I’m not about to play a game of rugby or run a marathon, I’m not in bad shape for a Child of the Sixties, and live mostly in the present, and generally gaze into the future with a cheerful and optimistic eye.

However it is more real to me than ever that time is marching inexorably forward. There are a few reasons for this, which have nothing to do with a few moans and creaks in my body. It’s the news of deaths, the final decay of what was once treasured, the concept that all things must pass, to quote George Harrison. It seems all things contain the seed of their own destruction.

Aye, there’s the rub!

You see during 2022 and through the beginning of 2023, I seem to have had more and more meetings, phone calls or news items telling me of loss or threatened loss, be it of someone close to me or close to someone else, or a favoured artist or simply some mi80

crocosmic aspect of our cultural era coming to a close.

A few months ago, while I was talking to my talented sister on the phone, I recognised something wasn’t quite right. It was not the usual free flowing, sometimes rather abstract conversation we normally have. I put it down to the fact that she was recovering from a minor accident. But recently, after a rather abortive effort to chat with her, my niece told me what I had begun to suspect. And I’m afraid the end is nigh for this talented and beautiful soul.

Along with this a small number of friends have actually passed away and all these things rather call one’s attention to one’s own mortality. Don’t worry, I’m not spiralling down a rabbit hole. I’m actually doing okay, this was just a preamble.

There are certain artistic performers who one learns, be it through shuffling off this mortal coil, retirement or age related phenomena, that we will not see perform again. I’m sure you can recall hearing of an artist one will not see again, and the loss one feels. I cried when Leonard Cohen died. I’d never met him, but he had touched my soul many times through his music and lyrics.

Perhaps these various losses or potential losses, stored away in my psyche, are the background music to why I read with great sadness that American singer/songwriter Gretchen Peters was arriving at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on 21st May as

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coda part of her farewell tour.

Farewell tour? I was shocked, I’d only just got to know her music, having discovered her relatively recently. I should say I’m a lyrics man. Songs with beautiful, poetic lyrics are my Ambrosia. Songs without bore me, no matter the beauty of the melody.

Of course this doesn’t apply to such instrumental masterpieces as Lark Ascending or Telstar, I’m referring to modern cultural songs in general. Dylan and his contemporaries opened the door for poetry to be alloyed with music, and when I heard it, way back when, I never looked back.

If you want an insight into my personality here is a very brief chronological list of some of my favourite songs that spring to mind. They all have an aesthetic to their lyrics. When I was a very young lad I was enchanted and amused by George Formby’s ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’. Into my teens I was submerged into the grief of lost love during The Moody Blues' ‘Nights in White Satin’. Slightly later, as I became more culturally aware, I was transfixed by Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’ and Paul Simon’s ‘America’.

Spiritual and social development found me listening avidly to Al Stewart’s ‘Roads to Moscow’, The Incredible String Band’s ‘Maya’, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ and Jimmy Webb’s ‘The Highwayman’. Later, with a more holistic attitude, I lost myself in ‘A long December’ by Counting Crows, a song which also has a very personal association for me. Of course there are many other marvellous songs I really liked over the years, but these are the ones that come to mind as I write.

Which brings me to my favourite song from the past few years, which I discovered after going to Gretchen Peters' gig in Worthing and interviewing her for issue 6 of the magazine in 2014. OMG! That’s almost ten years ago! Time! Where the hell does it go?!

I’ll tell you about the song in a moment, after a little about Gretchen.

She first toured the UK in 1997.

Her song ‘Independence Day’ recorded by Martina McBride, won a CMA Song of the Year award in 1995 and she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014. Her 2015 album, ‘Blackbirds’ was awarded International Album of the Year and Song of the Year by the UK Americana Association. In 2015, The Telegraph named her one of the greatest 60 female singersongwriters of all time. In 2021 she was awarded The Poets Award by the

Academy of Country Music. Artists including Faith Hill, Bonnie Raitt, Martina McBride, Etta James, the Neville Brothers, Bryan Adams, Patty Loveless, Billy Ray Cyrus and Neil Diamond have recorded her intelligent, introspective and insightful songs.

While at the Worthing gig, which was the first time I had come across her work, I fell in love with her words. Here was a kindred spirit, another fascinating modern day troubadour to add to my collection. Here’s a quote from that interview; “I was always impressed and amazed by how intently UK audiences would listen to every word. That’s really Nirvana for me, because I consider myself a lyricist first & foremost.” So hopefully that gives you some insight into her creative personality.

And the song? It is from her album ‘Hello Cruel World’ and is entitled ‘The Matador’. Hearing it live for the first time was absolutely one of those moments, and I tracked with every word and concept. Although apparently singing about a specific relationship a woman is having with a troubled, talented artist, I was sure she was actually singing about all romantic relationships that had ever existed. I was enthralled.

Later, in an interview she did with Billboard Magazine, I discovered I was right. She said “In a sense, the male and the female in that song are prototypes – male and female archetypes. It was based on relationships that

Gretchen Peters, photo by Andrew Newiss

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coda I've seen. I've known my share of difficult men. I have an ongoing fascination with Hemingway and Picasso, who were those sorts of artists.”

It’s a beautiful song, somewhat tragic, but beautiful in its sadness. And I am particularly intrigued by the fact that it hints at the woman’s own causation in her problems with the creative and dynamic, yet troubled spirit, the metaphorical Matador.

Sad but not sad, I’m looking forward to seeing Gretchen at the De La Warr Pavilion in May, and the following day of course, time will have separated us once again, perhaps forever. I see ‘The Matador’ is on the set list. It had to be. It’s just one of those songs.

Whether Gretchen graces these shores again or not, she definitely deserves her own niche in Cohen’s symbolical, mystical and eternal Tower of Song along with all the other greats.

And finally, not finally

above: Roger shows Gretchen Peters her interview in ingénu/e magazine at the Worthing gig back in 2014 right: Gretchen Peters

Our next issue, summer issue 40, is our tenth anniversary issue. Once again, I can’t believe it! Ten years and still going strong, despite the pandemic and all the bad news the media loves to bombard us with.

We are currently planning some sort of celebration/ surprise/ bright idea/ acknowledgement thingy. Don’t know what it will be yet, but hopefully you will be the first to know. Keep your ears open!

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goodvibrationssociety.com

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Assassins Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by John Weidman

A surreal carnival. A group of people with one thing in common.

And the ultimate prize: a place in the history books.

3 – 24 June Tickets from £10 Book at cft.org.uk

www.cft.org.uk

https://www.cft.org.uk/